Almond Sans Rival Part III - Assembly

 

Here is the final post in my almond sans rival series (I might have, in the future, chocolate, mocha, pistachio, cashew, or even pandan, who knows?). Thank you for your patience.

Please take note in Part II of what I WOULD HAVE CHANGED in making these sans rival. I would not really change the recipes, but I believe at least getting the proportions right will give very good results. Photo above shows the chilled (hence flattened frosting and sprinkles -- not too appealing to the eyes, but tastes actually better than when freshly made) sans rival with thinner frosting than that shown in my first post. It was good, but I still wish I had thicker meringue layers. My husband found the buttercream too buttery in that first one I assembled (what else can you expect of buttercream anyway?) but he loved the meringue cookies alone! (However, I knew when I was making whoopie pies when I asked him about using butter in the frosting instead of shortening, he said it just does not taste quite the same. So maybe he really is not a fan of buttercream). My kids love both assembled and meringue cookies (dacquoise) alone; in fact, they are requesting I make some more dacquoise, but at present, I have no egg whites available. I do have some egg yolks (4 of them) from when my stepdaughter made chocolate molten lava cakes. Now I am thinking of finally making purely egg yolk-y leche flan...but I find that too rich, I can't eat more than two tbsp.

Anyway, I digress...

UPDATE: I made a second batch and brought/shared with co-workers (in two hospitals) and they raved about this, even asked for the recipe. Then I made a third batch, this time making it into a rectangular cake to bring to my mother-in-law on Mother's Day. Both she and her husband loved it as well!

Ingredients:
Prepared meringue cookies (dacquoise)
Prepared buttercream
Toasted almonds (about 200 grams sliced)

Instructions:

Toast the almonds at 350 deg F for 8-10 minutes (I followed the instruction at the packaging for toasting the sliced almonds. I used two types of pan: 1 thin dark cookie sheet and another thick jelly roll pan, which gave me almost burnt almonds on the first, and perfectly toasted on the second. So, I suggest you watch after 5 minutes whether they are toasted good already). Cool then crumble using your hands.

Use a ziploc bag with a cut at the corner for the buttercream. Keep the rest cooled with bags of ice around (or in the fridge). Use gloves to insulate the buttercream from your warm hands. I would suggest putting a very thin layer of buttercream in between the dacquoise/meringue layers. Press together some more so the excess buttercream will be squeezed out. Use this to frost the sides.

[Note: In the slideshow you will see some sprinkled sugar+ground almonds which i sandwiched between two layers of meringue already frosted, so in effect I had very thick frosting of buttercream sandwiching the sugar+ground almonds. Since this resulted to overwhelming buttercream-y taste, I omitted the double frosting and sugar+ground almonds. Instead, I just applied one layer of frosting. It was much better, but I wish I had thicker dacquoise, or thinner buttercream.]

Prepare cling wrap for individual serving to hold the initial assembly, frost one broad side (e.g., bottom) and sprinkle with crumbled toasted almonds. Now you can touch this side with plastic so you can work on frosting the other broad side (e.g., top), then sprinkle some more with almonds.

There! I hope I have effectively taught those who needed teaching. Some of my readers might actually know about this; please do not hesitate to offer corrections, suggestions, etc. Even recipes are welcome! (That is, if you are willing to share.)

Gosh, I think I gained 5 pounds in the last three days because of this...I need to use the DDR!!! Arrrrgh!