Pistachio Dacquoise

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If you are, like me, still staring at that container load of egg whites in the fridge, left over from all the Pineapple Tarts and Kueh Lapis CNY baking frenzy, then this is one recipe you will appreciate.
Less temperamental and with a simpler process than the macarons, these little cookies are every bit as French as their priMA donna cousins. I made these quite some time ago here after I acquired my dacquoise mold from Japan. Since then, the mold had sat in the cabinet, forlorn and neglected. So I am glad that this stood out as a reminder as I flipped through Pierre Herme's Le Livre des Fours Secs et Moelleux - another cookbook which I have had success with several times.

If you do not have a Dacquoise mold, you can still pipe these out round like macarons. They will still look super cute like little rustic looking burger cookies.

I decided to experiment a little with the recipe using Pistachio. Instead of the usual ground almond or hazelnut, I used a blend of ground pistachio and ground almonds with a white chocolate pistachio filling.    Pistachio cream, in my opinion, always have the ability to refine the taste of any pastry, elevating blandness to elegance.

I however, made a mistake when I made these. It is standard to dust the meringue generously with icing sugar before baking. The sugary surface will take on a crystalline crispy finish in the oven. I totally overlooked that and only realised my mistake when the dacquoises were baking away in the oven.
Nevertheless, I thought the cookies still look presentable and am happy with my simple experiment.

So, what else are you making with the left over egg whites? I still have a load of them.... (hopefully any suggested recipes would not require me to break any more eggs for yolks! :D )


Pistachio Dacquoise
Recipe: (this is a very small recipe that bakes only 6 cookies)
80g                     Egg white
25g                     Castor sugar
2g                       Dried powder egg white

25g                     Ground pistachio
25g                     Ground almond
50g                     Icing sugar
10g                     All purpose flour
Icing sugar for dusting

Filling :
40g                     White chocolate
40g                     Pistachio paste

Method :
1. Sift the ground pistachio, almond, icing sugar and flour together and set aside.
2. Preheat oven to 170C.
3. In a clean and dry mixing bowl, whisk egg white and dried egg white powder together until foamy. Add castor sugar in 3 additions and continue whisking until stiff peaks are formed.
4. Fold in sifted dry ingredients from (1), taking care not to deflate the meringue.
5. If you are using the Dacquoise mold, mist the mold with water and lay it on a baking sheet/ silpat sheet.
6. Pipe (4) into each cavity of the dacquoise mold and scrape to level meringue.  (if you are not using the mold, simply pipe rounds on to the baking sheet. I particularly like to finish the rounds with a pointy tip)
7. Lift the dacquoise mold and dust the meringue with icing sugar. Once the icing sugar has melted into the meringue, dust one more time with icing sugar.
8. Bake at 170C for 20mins.
9. Cool down completely before removing the dacquoise from the baking sheet.
10. Our climate is humid. The cookies will soften if not stored in an air tight container hence I would advice to keep them in air tight containers and store in the fridge.
11. For the white chocolate pistachio filling, melt white chocolate over a bain marie. Mix in pistachio paste.
12. Pipe or apply filling on to dacquoise with a offset spatula. Sandwich with another cookie.