Chocolate and Raspberry Hearts

To prepare the chocolate and raspberry hearts, start by making the praline: roast the hazelnuts by placing them on a baking sheet in a preheated oven at 300°F for 35 minutes, until they are golden brown 1. Meanwhile, prepare the caramel (Caramel for more instructions): in a double-bottomed stainless steel saucepan, add the granulated sugar one tablespoon at a time and let it slowly dissolve over low heat, without stirring, but gently rotating the saucepan. You should achieve a brown caramel 2, whose temperature should range between 331°F-347°F (use a food thermometer to help you). Add half of the roasted hazelnuts to the caramel and mix very quickly 3.

Place the caramelized hazelnuts on a silicone mat and separate them from each other 4. Use a wooden skewer to avoid burning your hands. This must be done quickly, or the hazelnuts will stick together. Once cooled, chop both the roasted and caramelized hazelnuts with a kitchen knife 5 or, if you prefer, with a mixer (depending on whether you want larger or smaller hazelnut pieces). Now, in a bowl, coarsely crumble the wafers with your hands 6 and

add the chopped hazelnuts 7. Mix a bit with your hands, so the wafer cream softens a little and the ingredients combine. Melt the gianduja chocolate in the microwave or in a bain-marie 8 and add it to the wafer and hazelnut mixture. Mix well 9: the mixture should be soft and compact.

Melt the chocolate and add it to the other ingredients 10, mixing everything well. Pour the praline between 2 sheets of parchment paper 11 and, using a rolling pin, roll it out to a thickness of 1/4 inch 12. The praline should set at room temperature until it easily separates from the two sheets of parchment paper (this will take about 2 hours).

Meanwhile, prepare the chocolate buttercream: start by placing the sugar with the water in a heavy-bottomed saucepan 13 and heat it gently, stirring occasionally with a metal spoon. When the sugar has dissolved, stop stirring and use a food thermometer to measure that the syrup reaches 250°F 14. Meanwhile, place the egg yolks in a stand mixer, or beat with an electric mixer, at medium speed 15 to achieve a light and frothy mixture.

Add the sugar syrup in a thin stream 16 and continue to beat until the mixture is completely cooled. While the whipped yolks cool, work the room-temperature butter with the vanilla, using a spatula to make it creamy 17. Incorporate the butter into the whipped yolks 18 and

continue to beat to obtain a very frothy and creamy mixture 19. Melt the dark chocolate, in a bain-marie or in the microwave, let it cool slightly while stirring continuously with a spatula, and add it to the buttercream 20. Work the mixture again until the chocolate is fully combined with the other ingredients. Transfer the obtained cream to a bowl 21 and let it chill in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Move on to preparing the chocolate dacquoise: beat the egg whites, with a stand mixer or electric mixer 22, and when foam begins to form, add the sugar 23 and continue beating until it reaches a thick and firm consistency, like that of a meringue 34.

Sift the all-purpose flour 25, almond flour 26, and hazelnut flour 27 into a bowl. Melt the dark chocolate, in a bain-marie or in the microwave, and let it cool slightly (it should reach 104°F).

Add the mixed flours little by little to the beaten egg whites 28 and gently fold in from bottom to top with a spatula to combine well. Take part of this mixture and mix it with the melted chocolate 29, then combine it with the remaining white dacquoise mixture and integrate 30,

Prepare a baking sheet, covered with parchment paper, on which you'll draw, with a pencil, the outlines of a heart-shaped mold (we used a mold with a maximum length of about 3 inches), which you'll use to cut all the other parts that will make up the dessert 31. Transfer the chocolate dacquoise batter to a piping bag with a plain nozzle and, starting from the edge, draw concentric hearts with the batter (the quantity is for 4 dacquoise hearts, but depending on the nozzle size, there could be more. In this case, serve them as simple meringue hearts) 32. Bake the hearts in a preheated fan oven at 350°F for about 10 minutes (or in a static oven at 390°F for 10-15 minutes) 33.

As soon as they are baked, sprinkle the dacquoise hearts with plenty of powdered sugar 34 and immediately cover with a sheet of plastic wrap to prevent them from drying out 35. Meanwhile, the praline will be ready and will easily separate from the upper sheet of parchment paper 36.

With the previously used heart-shaped mold, cut 8 hearts from the praline, which will be the bases of our dessert (37-38). If you have a smaller heart-shaped mold, cut small heart shapes from the praline scraps, which you'll use for the final decoration of the dessert 39. Place all the hearts in the refrigerator on a tray covered with parchment paper, and let them cool for at least 20-30 minutes.

Transfer the chocolate buttercream to a piping bag with a narrow star nozzle and wash the raspberries well, then we can move on to assembling the chocolate and raspberry hearts. Place a dollop of cream on the bottom of a serving dish to fix the first praline heart that will be the base of the dessert 40. Fill the base with tufts of cream until the surface is completely covered 41 and place a row of raspberries along the edges 42.

Continue with the dacquoise heart 43, fill this one with tufts of cream as well and decorate this layer with raspberries too. Finish with a praline heart and decorate with a tuft of cream in the center, a raspberry, a small praline heart, and a fresh mint leaf 44. Proceed like this to create 3 more desserts, and your chocolate and raspberry hearts are ready 45! Aren't they beautiful? Keep them in the refrigerator until half an hour before serving!

The chocolate and raspberry hearts are very elegant and refined desserts, and you can also offer them at an important dinner. In this case, you can give the dessert any shape you want, round, square, or rectangular. You just need to use a ring mold of the desired shape to make the dacquoise bases (we used a ring mold with a diameter of about 4 inches) 46 and cut the praline accordingly, then assemble the dessert as above, with a praline base, a dacquoise center, and a final praline base, all interspersed with tufts of buttercream and raspberries (47-48). This way, you will always have four desserts to amaze everyone.