Coconut Dacquoise with Chocolate Ganache Filling

I attempted to make my own mayonnaise recently and it was a disaster - I tried once before and both times I haven't been able to get the mixture to thicken. Does anyone have any advice?

Since I'd used egg yolks for this recipe - three, as the recipe said two and it wouldn't thicken so I added another, which helped a little but not enough - I also had three egg whites to use up. I thought about making meringue but didn't want anything that sugary, and I'd just seen something on television where a chef was making a dacquoise - a cake made with layers of almond and hazelnut meringue.

I had some dessicated coconut I'd bought for another recipe and wondered if I could make the same sort of nutty meringue bake. Turns out you can!

I based my recipe on the coconut dacquoise element of this recipe, but changed it slightly to use coconut flour instead of almond meal (I assume by 'meal' you could use ground almonds). I also halved the quantities, and found it made seven.

Coconut flour is produced from dried coconuts; it's gluten-free and a protein-rich alternative to ordinary flour. Coconut flour also has fibre and fat (as coconuts contain fat) which makes it very filling - I bought it for a recipe I was making from a book called I Quit Sugar. I found lots of other interesting facts about coconut flour on the Nourished Kitchen website including a warning that you can't just substitute it for plain flour in baking. It can also go a bit clumpy which I discovered making this recipe, but it worked well otherwise in this mixture - I just might think twice before using it in a cake.

I toasted the coconut in the oven for a few minutes to start, and allowed it to cool.

Then for the dacquoise I whisked the egg whites and added the sugar, then folded in the dessicated coconut, coconut flour and icing sugar.

I piped circles out onto an oven tray -I realised I'd run out of baking paper so had to line it with foil.

Bake for 8-10 minutes then allow to cool.

For the filling I brought some cream to a simmer then added some chocolate and stirred until melted, then put into the fridge until set. I sandwiched the dacquoise together with the chocolate - even though my fiancé doesn't like coconut he did enjoy these!

I'm sharing this with Perfecting Patisserie, hosted by Lucy at BakingQueen74.