This is quite simply the best chocolate dessert I have ever had.
Pierre Hermé calls it Plaisir Sucré. Maison Landemaine calls it Jivara. Le Cordon Bleu calls it Douceur Chocolat. There might be many more versions of it around Paris, but at its core it’s the most delicate chocolate and hazelnut cake built over several layers of sublime textures.
This one is a slightly simplified version of it. The only technique that you really need to know for this is chocolate tempering. Simply put, the chocolate you buy is already in temper. But if you want to melt it to coat truffles, or in this cake, make chocolate discs, it needs to be in temper first. This means that you have to raise the temperature of milk chocolate to 40-50C, bring it down to 25C and then gently bring it back up to 30C, which is the working temperature for milk chocolate. By doing this the fat crystals realign themselves and the resulting set chocolate will have a lovely shine and crisp snap as opposed to being streaky and pliable.
What makes this cake so special for me is the layer that’s spread on the dacquoise – it’s a mix of milk chocolate, butter, hazelnut paste, toasted hazelnuts, praline and feuilletine. While you can make your own hazelnut paste and praline (tutorial coming up soon), feuilletine is the wildcard. It’s crushed up Gavotte Crepes that are incredibly addictive and the ones coated in milk chocolate always find their way into my basket at Monoprix. If you find yourself in Paris, you can buy a bag of feuilletine at G. Detou for about €5 or if you’d like to make your own, Bravetart has a solution.
Cross-section of Pierre Hermé's Plaisir Sucré. Every layer is much finer and he also has an
extra layer of mousse in his cake.I admit, making this cake is a bit of an effort, and something that warrants an occasion, but if you’re a fan of hazlenuts + milk chocolate like me, you are going to love this.
Heavenly Hazelnut Chocolate Cake
Dacquoise
90g ground hazelnuts
100g icing sugar
100g egg whites
35g caster sugar
A handful of chopped hazelnuts
Whisk together the ground hazelnuts and icing sugar.
In a large bowl, beat the egg whites and add the sugar slowly into the bowl. Whisk until stiff peaks form.
Fold the hazelnut and icing sugar mixture into the whites and then transfer to a piping bag with a plain tip nozzle number 10.
To make a large cake, use a 16cm ring size, to make smaller cakes use 7.5cm ring. Pipe the cake batter inside the ring, starting from outside inwards. Bake at 180C for 10-15 minutes depending on the size.
The cake will rise quite a bit while baking and deflate on cooling. This is normal. Once cooled, you can proceed with assembling the cake.
Hazelnut Feuilletine
35g milk chocolate
15g butter
60g hazelnut praline
60g hazelnut paste (pate de noisette)
60g feuilletine
25g toasted hazelnuts, chopped finely
Melt the milk chocolate and butter together. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir till it forms a consistent paste.
Chocolate Ganache
200g milk chocolate
300g heavy cream
Bring the cream to a boil and then pour it over the chocolate in a bowl. Whisk together. Refrigerate until thoroughly chilled. You can do this the previous night.
Chocolate discs
400g milk chocolate
Temper the chocolate (instructions above)
Spread the chocolate on acetate sheets (plastic transparencies) in a thin layer with an offset spatula.
When it has set slightly, use the cake ring to carve the disc shapes. Refrigerate until completely set. Then peel off the acetate sheet to use the discs. Use the shiny side up.
Assembling the Cake
Spread a layer of the hazelnut paste on the dacquoise, followed by a disc of chocolate. Next, pipe the ganache over with a star shaped nozzle. Place another disc on top.