GOOEY CHOCOLATE STACK
 NIGELLA

Photograph by Petrina Tinslay

INGREDIENTS

FOR THE MERINGUE DISCS:
6 large egg whites
300g golden caster sugar
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
3 baking sheets
FOR THE CRÈME PATISSIÈRE:
6 large egg yolks
100g golden caster sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 tablespoons plain flour
300ml full-fat milk
300ml double cream
100g the best dark chocolate, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
20g pistachios, chopped
Serving Size : Serves 10-12
METHOD

1.Preheat the oven to 140ºC/gas mark 1.
2.Line the baking sheets with parchment and draw a 20cm circle on each one. The simplest way to do this is simply to find a bowl or cake tin with the desired dimensions, plonk it on and draw round it.
3.Whisk the egg whites until stiff, then add the sugar a spoonful at a time, beating in well after each addition. Believe me – and I speak as someone often criminally impatient – it does make life easier to go slowly here. Sprinkle over the cocoa and vinegar and then fold in gently but firmly.
4.Divide the dusky meringue between the 3 circles, spreading evenly. You don’t need to worry too much about beating the air out of them as you smooth; I find they withstand a modicum of brutality.
5.Cook for 1 hour, then turn off the oven, leaving the meringues in until cool. Often, I just make them before I go to bed and leave them in the switched-off oven overnight. It makes for less hanging about. And as long as you keep them airtight, with sheets of baking parchment in between, you can do these a good week or so in advance.
6.Now for the crème patissière: beat the egg yolks and sugar together, then add the cocoa and flour, whisking well. Warm the milk and cream in a saucepan, then, whisking, pour this onto the eggs and sugar before pouring everything back into the saucepan on the heat and, stirring constantly, bring it to the boil. When the mixture has thickened, take it off the heat and stir in the melted chocolate and vanilla.
7.Let it cool now, but avoid putting it into the fridge as it will become too solid. You can stop it forming a skin either by covering with buttered baking parchment or greaseproof paper or by sieving a layer of icing sugar over. What I often prefer to do, however, and which cuts out more waiting around, is to plunge the saucepan into a sinkful of iced water and just keep stirring: it doesn’t take long to get cold.
8.To assemble the cake, place one of the meringue discs on a flat plate (I rather like those tea-shop cake-stands, though preferably in glass), spread with a third of the chocolate cream, then carry on layering. Scatter over the chopped pistachios, which will gleam out, a tender grass-green against the dark chocolate. Then just cut in: and you’ll find that it gives the illusion of a fine layering of multi-stacked, custard-bellied wafers; this is because each meringue, with its soft innards and crisp carapace, looks and tastes like three layers, not one.
ADDITIONAL INFO

Don’t panic at the idea of crème patissière. It could hardly be easier: remember that the flour stabilizes it, so you don’t have the knife-edge worry of its splitting; plus it’s made in advance, as are the pavlova layers, so that it’s just a simple stacking operation at the end. You don’t need to use the chopped pistachios I’ve suggested to scatter over the top: hazelnuts, almonds, indeed any nuts, would be fine; or you could go divinely retro with crystallized violets.

REVIEWS

This is a divine desert, I love it so much I've even made some variations of it.

peanut

The first time I made this, we loved it, but it was a mess. My meringue ended up too mounded, which made it difficult to stack neatly. My creme patissiere mustn't have been cooked long enough either as it dripped off (also due to the mounded meringue I suspect). In spite of it looking somewhat like a molten chocolate volcano we thought it was delicious!

Coby

I made this over Easter in an attempt to impress my family with this gorgeous looking dessert. What a disaster it was! I followed the recipe exactly. Whilst my meringues looked fine, upon serving I discovered that they were chewy and that the creme patisserie had made them go soft, despite only assembling it a few hours before serving it. The creme patisserie was a disaster of its own making! It was very thick, despite a heck of a alot of whisking AND adding cornflour. The recipe made a gigantic quantity - I only used just over half - and, as stated above, it made my meringue soft. It did not impress!!!! Needless to say I won't be trying that one again.

Marmite_Girl

I love Nigela's book How to be a Domestic Goddess. This is the first time I made this recipe and was surprised just how easy it was. The end result was fabulous. I posted a picture of 'the stack' on my facebook page now everyone wants me to make this for them.

MissJulianne
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