Hazelnut Meringue Cake

Crispy and a little bit chewy meringue cookies filled with roasted hazelnuts, layered with silky and sweet chocolate condensed milk frosting, decorated with chocolate glaze!

Ingredients:

200g egg whites at room temperature
1/8 tsp salt
400g sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
200g chopped and roasted hazelnuts

Chocolate Condensed Milk Buttercream Frosting

100g chocolate
50g heavy cream

Step 1

Add the egg whites into a grease-free mixing bowl and make sure that no trace of the egg yolk gets into the egg whites.

Step 2

Add salt and start whipping on medium speed until air bubbles start appearing.

Step 3

Add all the sugar and keep whipping on high speed for about 5 minutes.

Step 4

Stop the mixer, take some of the meringue mixture and rub it between your fingers. You can feel if the sugar is completely dissolved or not.

Step 5

Keep whipping the mixture for another 5 minutes or until you get very STIFF picks! It will increase in volume and be very thick and glossy.

Step 6

Add chopped, roasted hazelnuts to the whipped meringue. Then with a careful folding motion (going under, and over) incorporate the hazelnuts into the meringue with a minimal amount of strokes.

Step 7

Transfer the merengue into a pastry bag and pipe 8-inch circle onto parchment paper. (You can make a pattern of the circle on the other side of parchment paper).

Step 8

Next, pipe the rest of the meringue mixture onto parchment paper about 1-1.5-inch mounts. Bake at 200F in a preheated oven, until the meringues are dry all the way through in the middle (it may take 1.5-2.5 hours depending on the size of the merengue). To check, gently open the oven door and remove one meringue mount. Allow it to cool completely and crack it open to check the middle of the meringue. If it’s dry in the middle, you’re ready to assemble the cake.

Step 9

Pipe a thin layer of chocolate frosting on top of the cake base and lay out the meringue cookies. Repeat the process until the mountain will form.

Step 10

Decorate the cake with the chocolate glaze and refrigerate it for a minimum of 2 hours. (Overnight is even better).

Notes:

Make sure that the bowl and beater are completely grease and moisture free. Any moisture can ruin your merengue.

Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites in a separate bowl before adding it to the mixer bowl. Even a tiny bit of yolk can ruin your merengue.

You can use a large piping tip or just cut the end of the pastry bag and pipe without any tip.

If you’re planning to pipe your meringue with a piping tip, you will need to chop the hazelnuts very fine, so they do not clog up the tip.

You can use any type of nuts you like instead of hazelnuts.

Time of baking will depend on the size of the merengue mountains. The circle base merengue will take more time to bake.

Enjoy!