Actually, the sweet grand finale of our Christmas series could have had the classic title “Gâteau Royal d’AYA”, but we found that “Holy Christmas, this is the BEST dessert I’ve ever eaten!” goes much better with this culinary revelation. Because it was precisely this sentence that Finia heard independently from two people while developing the recipe. Although these dessert testers are absolutely right, we want to remain humble and after much deliberation we decided on the name “A Christmas chocolate dream”.
Even though this recipe, cake, taste experience and the subsequent memories of it are AMAZING (yes, we remain humble here too), we only have one tiny concern. If you skim through the recipe, you might get the impression that you have to be a culinary genius to prepare this dessert. But guys, that’s definitely not the case!
The recipe has four stages and we have designed each of these stages so that it is 100% sure to succeed. In addition, the cake should ideally steep for at least twelve hours, which in turn means that the entire dessert can be prepared early, making life easy. Our verdict: this Christmas chocolate dream is a MUST for every festive dinner.
The bottom of the cakes forms a dacquoise, a light, crispy base that is covered with a praline mixture. Pear cubes infused with wine are placed on top before the springform pan is filled with chocolate mousse. Is your mouth watering already? Then let’s go to the recipe:
Christmas Chocolate Dream
Ingredients
Dacquoise
- 5 egg whites
- 170 g powdered sugar
- 120 g hazelnuts ground
- 60 g fine granulated sugar
Infused pears
- 2 ripe pears
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 100 ml mulled wine the best mulled wine recipe can be found here, alternatively you can also use white wine
Chocolate mousse
- 160 g dark chocolate at least 60% cocoa content
- 80 ml whole milk
- 400 ml full cream
Praline mass
- 60 g Berner Bretzeli e.g. Kambly
- 180 g praline chocolate e.g. Torino
Instructions
Dacquoise (nut meringue layer)
- Preheat the oven to 160C top / bottom heat
- Lay out baking paper in the springform pan and cut the edges
- Mix the powdered sugar and the ground hazelnuts
- Beat the egg white together with the granulated sugar until firm
- Carefully stir the powdered sugar and hazelnut mixture into the egg white
- Pour the Dacquoise batter into the springform pan and distribute evenly.
- Bake for 25 minutes and then leave to cool for 30 minutes
- Info: Please don’t be alarmed, your Dacquoise is a huge drama queen and will lead a life of its own in these 25 minutes. It will open and then collapse again – so don’t worry, you’re doing everything right!
Infused pears
- Peel the pears, cut into small cubes and drizzle with lemon juice
- Warm up the mulled wine
- Steam the pears in the mulled wine for about five minutes (the pears should be soft at the end)
- Drain the pears and let them cool
Chocolate mousse
- Melt the chocolate over a water bath
- Bring the milk to the boil
- Mix both to a homogeneous mass and let cool slightly in a small bowl
- In the meantime, whip the cream in a large bowl until stiff
- Now slowly, carefully and evenly stir the chocolate milk into the whipped cream
Praline mass
- Break the pretzel into fine pieces
- Melt the chocolate over a water bath
- Pour the Bretzeli into the melted chocolate and stir evenly
Cake
- Spread the praline mixture thinly on the Dacquoise
- Distribute the pears evenly on the cake base
- Fill the springform pan with the chocolate mousse
- Let the cake set in the refrigerator for at least twelve hours (at best 24 hours)
- To serve, remove the springform pan and then garnish the cake with cocoa.
- Enjoy!
Notes
