Wild Blackberry And Raspberry Dacquoise

by Chef Normand Laprise

Essentially these are nut meringues with fruit and cream. You can make them as described below or free-form, piling on fruit and topping with cream, which is easier than piping them.

Lemon thyme whipping cream:
1 tablespoon sugar
1 sprig lemon thyme
1 cup whipping cream

Dacquoises:
2 large egg whites
½ cup sugar
1 cup ground almonds
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 pint raspberries
1 pint blackberries
1 cup raspberry sorbet
2 tablespoons icing sugar

Crush sugar and lemon thyme together and combine with cream. Leave to infuse in the refrigerator overnight. Just before serving, sieve the infused cream and whip it to soft peaks.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Using an electric mixer, whip egg whites on medium-low, adding sugar bit by bit until sugar has dissolved and mixture is thick like shaving cream. Combine ground almonds and cornstarch and fold into whipped egg whites.

Spread a thin layer on parchment paper using a 20-centimetre by 5-centimetre rectangular stencil. Repeat until you have 6 rectangles. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until meringues are dry to the touch but not coloured. (They will crisp as they cool.) Once the dacquoises have cooled they should lift easily off the paper. If they stick, put them back into the oven to cook a bit longer.

Place raspberries and blackberries in 2 lines on 2 rectangles of dacquoise. Pipe a line of whipped cream. Cover with a second dacquoise. Repeat the whole process with the fruit and the cream until dacquoises are used up. Dust with icing sugar. Cut each one in half. Decorate with a cluster of frosted currants and a sprig of frosted thyme, accompanied by a quenelle of raspberry sorbet.

Wine pairing by Beppi Crosariol:

Festive-looking and elegant, this dessert is a perfect foil for a red icewine. Many Canadian wineries now make sweet icewines based on such grapes as cabernet franc, merlot and cabernet sauvignon. Look for such producers as Jackson-Triggs, Pillitteri, Inniskillin, Stratus, Peller Estates and Southbrook. That last Niagara winery also makes several excellent, concentrated berry-based wines that would work splendidly here, including Southbrook Framboise and Southbrook Cassis. Another fine option would be Banyuls, a style of fortified dessert wine from France, which comes in both red and white versions.