Jenna is a self taught, home cook with a passion for baking. She gets her culinary inspiration by travelling abroad, and learning new culinary techniques.
How to make a praline feuilletine cake base recipe.
Prep Time1 hourhr30 minutesmins
Total Time1 hourhr30 minutesmins
Course: Dessert
Keyword: dessert
Yield: 112 x 16″ cake base
Materials
Feuilletine
1/4cupegg whites
1/4cupflour
1/4cupicing sugar
1/4cupbuttermelted
Praline Paste
35gwater
100gsugargranulated
100ghazelnutsroasted
pinch salt
Chocolate
210gmilk chocolate
Instructions
Feuilletine
In a medium sized bowl, mix together icing sugar and flour until well combined.
Add egg whites, and whisk together until it's completely mixed through.
Add melted butter to the bowl and whisk together again until it's fully combined.
Line a half sheet sized baking sheet with parchment paper. You can always use 2 – quarter sized baking sheets if you don't have a half sheet.
Place the mixture into the baking pan. Using a brush, spread the mixture out as thin as possible. This creates the crispy texture. If it's too thick it won't crisp up in the oven. It will be more squishy than crispy.
Bake for 10-15 minutes at 325 degrees F. It should golden brown when it's finished.
Let the feuilletine cool fully. Then break up into pieces. Set aside.
Praline Paste
Roasted ~100 g of hazelnuts at 360 °F for 15 minutes. Let the nuts cool to room temperature. Remove the skins by rubbing the cooled down nuts in your hands until most of the skins have come off. Remove as much of the skins as possible off of the hazelnuts.
In a medium saucepan, combine water and sugar over low – medium heat. Stir until sugar dissolves and begins boiling. Stop stirring the saucepan and let it boil on its own. Turn down the heat and let it boil on low (1-2).
The sugar will go through transformations as it becomes caramel. The sugar will begin to form crystals and be completely dry in the saucepan.
The sugar crystals will begin to melt and become a golden brown color. When it's turning a bit darker of a color, it's time to take it off the heat. You don't want to burn the caramel sauce.
Get a baking pan ready with a silicone baking mat lining it. Once your caramel sauce is finished, remove it from heat. Mix the sauce to make the crystals melt all the way through if there's any left in the pot. Pour the hazelnuts and salt into your caramel sauce and mix until they are fully covered.
Pour the hazelnut and caramel sauce onto the silicone baking mat. Let it cool to room temperature, it will solidify.
Break the caramel into smaller pieces. Place them into a food processor. It will be LOUD. Prepare yourself! It's best to do this step with ear protection. Blend on low, then on high. Scrape the sides down and blend until it becomes a paste (a couple of minutes). Set praline paste aside.
Praline Feuilletine
Melt 210 g of milk chocolate in the microwave. Using 30 second intervals, mix thoroughly until it's fully melted.
Add praline paste to the chocolate and mix together.
Add 1 cup of the feuilletine pieces to the chocolate-praline paste and mix together.
Pour and press your praline feuilletine into your cake base and let it set in the freezer for a couple of hours prior to using.
Roast 220 g of hazelnuts at 360 °F for 15 minutes. Let the nuts cool to room temperature. Remove the skins by rubbing the cooled down nuts in your hands until most of the skins have come off. Remove as much of the skins as possible off of the hazelnuts.
Place 220 g of hazelnuts into a food processor.
Add 1 tbsp of granulated sugar.
Blend the hazelnuts on low, and then on high until the hazelnuts are a fine texture. They only need about 10-25 seconds of blending in total. You don't want to overdo it and make a paste.
Your hazelnut meal is ready to use. Store it in an airtight container at room temperature for any leftover hazelnut meal.
How to make hazelnut dacquoise recipe for a cake base
Prep Time30 minutesmins
Active Time20 minutesmins
Course: Dessert
Keyword: dessert
Yield: 112 x 16″ cake base
Materials
320groasted hazelnuts
1tbspsugargranulated
8egg whites
1/3cupsugargranulated
1/8tspcream of tartar
pinchsalt
1 2/3cupspowdered sugar
Instructions
Roast 320 g of hazelnuts at 360 °F for 15 minutes. Let the nuts cool to room temperature. Remove the skins by rubbing the cooled down nuts in your hands until most of the skins have come off. Remove as much of the skins as possible off of the hazelnuts.
Place 100 g of roasted hazelnuts aside for later.
Place the other 220 g of hazelnuts into a food processor.
Add 1 tbsp of granulated sugar.
Blend the hazelnuts on low, and then on high until the hazelnuts are a fine texture. They only need about 10-25 seconds of blending in total. You don't want to overdo it and make a paste.
Set aside the blended hazelnuts for later.
Using a hand mixer, beat the 8 egg whites, 1/3 cup sugar, 1/8 tsp cream of tartar, and a pinch of salt on high until the egg whites form stiff peaks.
Using a spatula, gently fold in the blended hazelnuts and 1 2/3 cups icing sugar into the egg whites. Do not overmix. You want the egg whites to maintain the air you just beat into the egg whites.
Chop the 100 g of roasted hazelnuts that you set aside.
Line a 12 x 16" pan with parchment paper.
Place the egg white mixture into the pan and spread evenly using a spatula. The mixture will not even out in the oven, so it's best to even it out as best you can before putting it in the oven.
Place the chopped hazelnuts evenly around the hazelnut dacquoise.
Bake the hazelnut dacquoise for 20-22 minutes at 340 degrees F until the egg whites are a light brown color.
Let the dacquoise cool, then lift it out grabbing with the parchment paper at either end.
You can cut the dacquoise to fit your cake bottom. You can also freeze the rest of it if you don't use all of it with your recipe. Store in the freezer for up to 1 month.
Praline feuillentine is made by mixing together melted chocolate, praline paste, and paillete feuilletine.
The mixture is placed into the bottom of a baking pan, and let to set in the fridge until ready to use.
Hazelnut Squares
Hazelnut squares are made by combining praline paste with tempered chocolate.
The hazelnut-chocolate mixture is poured into a pan, and then it sets over the next couple of hours.
The hazelnut squares are cut into pieces, and then you can dip them again into melted chocolate for a rich hazelnut square.
Coffee Buns
Coffee buns are made by preparing a yeast dough and letting it rise.
The buns are baked, and then iced with coffee icing.
The tops of the coffee buns have praline paste spread on top of them to give them a hint of hazelnut flavor.
Pecan Praline Cheesecake
Pecan praline cheesecake is made by grinding up vanilla wafers and pecans to create the crust of the cheesecake.
The wafers and pecans are mixed with butter and pressed into the bottom of the cheesecake pan.
The cheesecake is prepared, and then the praline paste is mixed in to make a marbled praline cheesecake.
After the cheesecake has baked and cooled, melted white chocolate is mixed with a bit more praline paste.
The cheesecakes are topped with the white chocolate praline mixture, and a candied pecan.
Hazelnut Buttercream
Hazelnut buttercream can be used to fill macarons, or on top of cupcakes for a delicious buttery – nut flavored dessert.
Hazelnut buttercream is made by heating egg whites, sugar, and salt in a double boiler.
After the eggs have thickened a bit, the mixture is beaten until glossy with a bit of vanilla extract. Butter is added in with only small pieces at a time, making the buttercream rich and creamy.
At the end, praline paste is beaten into the buttercream.
The hazelnut buttercream is a nutty, buttery icing that goes well with chocolate or vanilla cupcakes.
Roasted ~100 g of hazelnuts at 360 °F for 15 minutes. Let the nuts cool to room temperature. Remove the skins by rubbing the cooled down nuts in your hands until most of the skins have come off. Remove as much of the skins as possible off of the hazelnuts.
In a medium saucepan, combine water and sugar over low – medium heat. Stir until sugar dissolves and begins boiling. Stop stirring the saucepan and let it boil on its own. Turn down the heat and let it boil on low (1-2).
The sugar will go through transformations as it becomes caramel. The sugar will begin to form crystals and be completely dry in the saucepan.
The sugar crystals will begin to melt and become a golden brown color. When it's turning a bit darker of a color, it's time to take it off the heat. You don't want to burn the caramel sauce.
Get a baking pan ready with a silicone baking mat lining it. Once your caramel sauce is finished, remove it from heat. Mix the sauce to make the crystals melt all the way through if there's any left in the pot. Pour the hazelnuts and salt into your caramel sauce and mix until they are fully covered.
Pour the hazelnut and caramel sauce onto the silicone baking mat. Let it cool to room temperature, it will solidify.
Break the caramel into smaller pieces. Place them into a food processor. It will be LOUD. Prepare yourself! It's best to do this step with ear protection. Blend on low, then on high. Scrape the sides down and blend until it becomes a paste (a couple of minutes).
Garnishing creme brulee makes this dessert look irresistable with using only a few simple additions.
You can use sprinkles, fruit, chocolate shavings, caramelized sugar pieces, sugar cookies, zest, cocoa powder, and more to garnish creme brulee!
Make your creme brulee eye catching and mesmerizing using these simple garnish ideas for creme brulee.
Sugar Cookies
Sugar cookies can be made into long, narrow cookies that look beautiful as a creme brulee garnish.
You can arrange them delicately on the edge of the creme brulee ramekin in a criss cross.
Caramelized Sugar Pieces
Caramelized sugar pieces look intricate and delicate. They add such an intriging look to the creme brulee.
Caramelized sugar pieces are made by making caramel, and then using a teaspoon to gently spoon the caramel onto a silicone baking mat to create a unique design.
You can make spirals, hearts, circles, jagged, or circular sugar pieces for an incredibly fancy creme brulee garnish.
Dusted Cocoa Powder
Cocoa powder looks beautiful when it is dusted on top of creme brulee.
Cocoa powder goes best with a chocolate, hazelnut, or caramel flavored creme brulee.
You can dust cocoa powder on to of creme brulee by placing a small spoonful in a sifter.
Gently tap the sifter to add the cocoa powder on top of the creme brulee for a simple garnish.
Mint Leaves
You can arrange a mint leaf beside a couple of fresh berries for a colorful creme brulee garnish.
Chocolate Shavings
Chocolate shavings look unique as a garnish for creme brulee.
Chocolate shavings add creamy chocolate notes to rich creme brulee.
You can add chocolate shavings to just about any flavor of creme brulee.
If you’re making a fruit or citrus flavored creme brulee, add white chocolate shavings.
Chocolate shavings can be made using a potato peeler and a chocolate bar.
You need to have enough chocolate to create the scrolled look, therefore a bar of chocolate works best for this.
Hold the chocolate bar over the creme brulee and “peel” the chocolate away from you to create the scroll for the garnish.
Nuts
You can add a sprinkle of your favorite nuts on top of creme brulee for an added crunchy texture to creme brulee.
Chop up your nuts into fine pieces prior to add them to your creme brulee.
Walnuts and pecans work well as a garnish for vanilla or chocolate creme brulee.
Whipped Cream
Whipped cream is a soft, pillow-y rich flavored garnish for creme brulee.
Whipped cream is generally cold, so it has ability to melt if you add it too soon after the sugar is burnt.
Wait a few minutes for the sugar to cool down before adding the whipped cream garnish.
Zucchini muffins are made by shredding zucchini into fine pieces.
Zucchini muffins are unique in that the recipe has an add in feature where you can pick if you want to add nuts, chocolate chips, or fruit to complete your muffins.
The batter of the zucchini muffins is flavored with cinnamon, and vanilla extract, making these muffins taste delicious with a cup of tea in the afternoon.
Peanut butter and vanilla extract are added to the muffin batter to flavor the muffins. Sour cream is added to the muffin batter which makes them have a bit of a tangy taste to them.
The chocolate chips melt in the oven, making these muffins irresistable!
White chocolate scrolls work well with most cupcake flavors.
Fresh Fruit
Fresh fruit can be used as a cupcake garnish using a small piece of fruit or a single berry. You can place it directly on top of the icing peak, or off to the side. Push it into the icing so it stays.
blackberry
blueberry
raspberry
kiwi slice
slice of strawberry
Chocolate Garnish
Chocolate garnishes can be made into countless designs, using your own imagination! You can pipe chocolate hearts, words, stars, butterflies, etc.
Once you’ve piped your chocolate into your beautiful garnish, place it in the freezer to hard up.
Then gently place it into the icing on your cupcake for a stunning garnish to your cupcakes.
Writing
You can write a chocolate garnish with a saying or word using handwriting. This way, word will stay all one piece.
After you’ve completed the word, trace a line underneath the word to make the letters reinforced, or have something that will be easily stuck into your cupcake.
Chocolate Leaf
You can paint melted chocolate onto a fresh leaf from the garden using a food safe paintbrush.
Let the chocolate leaf dry fully in the freezer. Then, peel off the leaf from the chocolate and place the chocolate leaf onto your cupcake.
Melt your chocolate in 30 second intervals until it’s fully melted. Use a spoon to mix your chocolate in between intervals. You’ll only need 1/4-1/3 cup of chocolate to make your chocolate garnish.
Place your piping tip into a piping bag. Put the piping bag over the edges of a tall glass.
Pour the melted chocolate into the piping bag.
Cut the piping bag tip and twist the end of the piping bag to get it ready for piping.
Place your parchment paper or silicone mat on a baking sheet. This will make it easier to transfer it to the freezer later. Any plate would work for this as well depending on how much freezer space you have.
Begin piping your chocolate garnish.
Place chocolate into the freezer for 20 minutes to set them.
Do not hold the chocolate garnish decoration for a very long time in your hand or it will start to melt.
Place your chocolate garnish gently into your cupcake.
180gwhite chocolatewafers or chopped up chocolate into small pieces
Instructions
White Chocolate Ganache
Place heavy cream in a small saucepan on medium heat. Bring the heavy cream to a simmer, just before it starts to boil remove it from the heat source.
Measure your white chocolate into a heat proof bowl.
Pour the hot cream over the white chocolate. Let it sit for 30 seconds – 1 minute.
Gently stir with a spatula until all of the white chocolate is melted and becomes a smooth mixture.
Let the white chocolate ganache sit until it's fully cooled to room temperature.
Place the white chocolate ganache into the fridge until it's chilled (1-2 hours).
Macarons
Place 55g egg whites in a stand mixer and mix on high speed.
Place water and sugar in a saucepan on medium heat and attach a candy thermometer to the saucepan to measure the temperature (we want the syrup to reach 118 degrees C).
While the syrup is heating up, place 55g egg whites in a large mixing bowl. Add any food coloring at this point using gel food coloring or 1/4 tsp of powdered food coloring. You could also add 1 tbsp of coffee grounds or cookie crumbs to the shells. You can add 1/4 tsp of extract as well if you want to flavor the shells. Mix the color thoroughly until the color is fully emulsified into the egg whites.
Add sifted and measured almond flour and icing sugar. Mix until fully combined. It should feel like a paste when it's completely mixed.
When the syrup gets up to 118 degrees C slowly stream the sugar syrup down the side of the bowl of the stand mixer. Increase the speed of the stand mixer to medium-heat speed and let it beat. The meringue is finished when you can turn the bowl upside down and the egg whites do not move.
Add 1/2 meringue to the almond flour paste bowl. Mix the meringue until it's completely mixed in. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl to mix everything together.
Add the rest of the meringue to the bowl. Mix until it's full combined. Continue mixing the macaron batter a little more, a few more turns. It should flow like lava when you lift your spoon. The batter should be glossy and less grainy than when you began mixing.
Pipe the macarons 1.5" wide on a silicone baking mat or parchment paper lined baking sheet. They are best cooked on an aluminum baking pan. Then pipe the next macaron 2" further away.
Add any sprinkles to the macarons at this point. Pick up the pan and bang the bottom of it to remove air bubbles. Bang the pan 3-5 times.
Let the macarons dry for 30 minutes.
Bake the macarons for 12 minutes at 300 degrees F.
Let the macarons fully cool. Take one of the macaron shells and match it up with a good fit for itself. Match all of your macarons and place face up.
Assembly
Microwave the white chocolate ganache for your macarons in 10 second intervals until you've obtained the consistency you want for piping your macarons.
Add the chocolate ganache to a piping bag, fitted with small circular tip.
Pipe your chocolate ganache onto half of the macaron shells. Sandwich the macarons together.
Store the white chocolate macarons in the fridge for 3 days or in the freezer for up to 1 month.
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