Hazelnut Meringue — toasted-nut meringue layered with cream and raspberries

i. Origin & history

Meringue is generally thought to have developed in Europe in the seventeenth century; by the eighteenth, French pastry cooks were baking whipped egg white and sugar into crisp shells and shapes, and folding ground nuts into the foam was a natural refinement. Nut meringues became a family of their own in French and Central European pâtisserie: the almond-and-hazelnut dacquoise of south-west France, the crisp almond succès and progrès layers of classic French cakes, and the Austrian and Swiss Haselnussbaiser.

Hazelnuts were the obvious choice in the regions where they grow in abundance — Piedmont, the Alps and much of central Europe. In northern Italy, the small, craggy hazelnut meringue biscuits called brutti ma buoni ("ugly but good") are a speciality associated with Piedmont and Lombardy, and in Austria and Switzerland hazelnut meringue bases appear under cream tortes.

In Britain, the hazelnut meringue cake — two discs of nut meringue filled with whipped cream and raspberries — became a favourite dinner-party and summer dessert in the second half of the twentieth century, alongside the pavlova and the Eton mess. It remains a staple of British and Irish home baking, and is particularly associated with the raspberry season.

What distinguishes a hazelnut meringue from a dacquoise is mostly proportion and baking. A dacquoise contains more nuts and is baked hotter to stay soft and cake-like; a hazelnut meringue has more sugar relative to the nuts and is dried slowly in a low oven until crisp, like a classic meringue.

ii. Why the hazelnuts must be toasted and folded in last

Raw hazelnuts taste mild and slightly green. Toasting transforms them: in a hot oven their natural sugars and proteins brown through the Maillard reaction, and their oils develop a deep, roasted aroma. Because the meringue itself is baked at a low temperature that barely browns it, the nuts must be toasted beforehand or the flavour stays flat. Rubbing off the papery skins after toasting removes a slightly bitter note.

Ground nuts contain oil, and oil is the enemy of egg-white foam. Fold the nuts into the meringue only at the very end, after it has been whipped to stiff, glossy peaks, and fold briefly and gently. A spoonful of cornflour mixed with the nuts helps by absorbing some of the oil and stabilising the meringue in the oven.

A teaspoon of vinegar or lemon juice is added to the whites, as in a pavlova. The acid stabilises the egg proteins, making the foam stronger and less likely to weep or collapse when the nuts are folded in, and it gives the inside of the meringue a slightly chewy, marshmallowy texture beneath the crisp outside.

The bake is long and low: about 140 °C for an hour, then cooling in the switched-off oven. This dries the meringue thoroughly without browning it too much. Cooling slowly prevents the dramatic cracking that sudden temperature changes cause, though a few cracks are normal and are hidden by the cream.

iii. Ingredients

Makes 10 servings · scroll the side panel to adjust

• 120 g blanched hazelnuts
• 1 tbsp cornflour
• 4 large egg whites, at room temperature
• 1 pinch salt
• 225 g caster sugar
• 1 tsp white wine vinegar or lemon juice
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 300 ml double cream
• 1 tbsp icing sugar, plus extra to dust
• 300 g raspberries

Start with whole blanched hazelnuts and toast and grind them yourself; ready-ground hazelnuts are often stale and lack flavour. If you only have skin-on nuts, toast them and rub them in a clean tea towel to remove most of the skins. Grind them fairly fine, but stop before they turn oily. Caster sugar dissolves fastest into the whites; granulated sugar can leave the meringue gritty and weeping. Raspberries are the classic partner, but strawberries, blackberries, sliced peaches or a sharp passion fruit curd all work.

iv. Method

1. Heat the oven to 180 °C (350 °F), fan 160 °C. Toast the hazelnuts on a tray for 8–10 minutes until golden and fragrant. Cool completely, then grind fairly finely and mix with the cornflour.
2. Lower the oven to 140 °C (275 °F), fan 120 °C. Draw two 20 cm circles on sheets of baking paper and lay them, drawn side down, on two baking trays.
3. Whisk the egg whites with the salt to soft peaks. Add the caster sugar a spoonful at a time, whisking well after each addition, until the meringue is thick, glossy and holds stiff peaks. Whisk in the vinegar and vanilla.
4. Fold in the ground hazelnut mixture with a large metal spoon in two additions, just until evenly combined.
5. Divide the meringue between the two circles and spread it into even discs about 2 cm thick, swirling the top of one for decoration.
6. Bake for 1 hour, swapping the trays halfway, until the meringues are pale golden, crisp on the outside and lift from the paper. Turn off the oven and leave them inside with the door ajar until completely cool.
7. Up to 2 hours before serving, whip the cream with the icing sugar to soft peaks. Place the plain disc on a plate, spread with the cream and scatter with most of the raspberries.
8. Top with the swirled disc, scatter with the remaining raspberries and dust with icing sugar.

v. Tips & common mistakes

• Toast the nuts fully. Untoasted hazelnuts give a bland, pale meringue. Golden and fragrant is the goal.
• Grind the nuts cool. Warm nuts turn to butter in the processor. Let them cool completely and pulse in short bursts.
• Add sugar slowly. A spoonful at a time lets it dissolve; rubbing a little meringue between your fingers should feel smooth.
• Fold briefly. The nut oils deflate the meringue the longer you fold.
• Cool in the oven. A slow cool reduces cracking and finishes drying the meringue.
• Assemble shortly before serving. Cream softens meringue within a few hours. Fill it up to 2 hours ahead, no more.

vi. Variations

For individual hazelnut meringues, spoon the mixture into 8 cm rounds and bake for about 45 minutes. A chocolate hazelnut meringue cake fills the discs with chocolate cream or ganache and adds grated dark chocolate. For a coffee version, fold a teaspoon of instant espresso powder into the meringue and fill with coffee cream. The Italian brutti ma buoni cook the hazelnut meringue briefly in a pan before baking it as small, rough biscuits.

Close relatives on DessertCat include the softer, nuttier dacquoise, the Filipino sans rival, the chestnut-topped Mont Blanc and plain meringue kisses. For other ways with hazelnut, see the hazelnut mousse and the hazelnut praline.

vii. Serving & storage

Serve the hazelnut meringue cake at the table, cutting it with a serrated knife; it will crack and shatter a little, which is part of its charm. It is a summer dessert when raspberries are at their best, and a light end to a rich meal.

Unfilled hazelnut meringue discs keep for up to 2 weeks in an airtight tin in a cool, dry place, so they are ideal for making ahead. Humidity is their enemy — they turn sticky if left uncovered. Once filled with cream, the cake should be eaten within a few hours; leftovers keep in the fridge until the next day but will be soft. Unfilled meringues can be frozen for up to a month in a rigid container.

ix. More from French

• Dacquoise — nut meringue layer cake
• Mont Blanc — chestnut meringue pastry
• Hazelnut Mousse — praline mousse
• Macarons — almond meringue sandwiches
• Sans Rival — Filipino cashew meringue cake
• Meringue Kisses — crisp piped meringues