Dominosteine für Helga

I make things for my mother.  She's been gone for close to eleven years and I still bake to please her.

While this brings with it great sadness and regret, it also brings her closer.

And nothing draws her more near than marzipan and chocolate.

Dominosteine littered our house during Christmas.  The package from Germany would arrive early in the month and we'd be knee deep in those ginger cake, marzipan, currant and chocolate squares for days.

I know I can buy them in the states now; I don't have to beg my family to ship them across the pond.  But I'd rather conjure a batch that recalls the best of my mother's favorite things, so that the sweet smell of baking almonds can reach high to her perch and surround her with earthly baking love.



Helgasteine

INGREDIENTS

for the cake

2 packages (14 ounces total) almond paste
1 cup sugar
2 sticks (8 ounces) softened, unsalted butter
2 ounces honey
6 eggs, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
5 ounces all purpose flour
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
pinch clove
pinch white pepper
(1 tablespoon black current purée, 1 tablespoon cocoa powder)

-Beat together almond paste, butter and sugar until smooth.  I know this is against store policy but dammit if almond paste isn't often dry, so I surreptitiously squeeze the box to make sure the stuff is fresh and malleable before I buy it.

-Add eggs, one at a time and then add the spices.

-Fold in the flour, salt and baking powder until just incorporated.  Divide the batter between three bowls. Leave one bowl plain, mix the tablespoon of black currant to one bowl and the cocoa to the third bowl.  Mix until incorporated.

-On a sheet pan lined with parchment and sprayed with non stick spray, spread the batters so that each batter takes up 1/3 of the pan (spread with the long side of the sheet pan facing you).  The batters will touch while baking but we'll trim those edges.  Your main objective is to have three individual blocks of cake:  one plain, one currant flavored and one cocoa.  One way to make it cleaner is to pipe the batters out with a pastry bag fit with a large open tip.

-Bake at 325º for about 20 minutes or until the cake just springs back and begins to slightly brown.

-Allow to cool completely.

To assemble

You'll need
-1 jar currant (or raspberry) preserves (no seeds) 15 ounce jar
-2 packages of almond paste, rolled into a thin sheet about 1/8 inch thick), approximately the size of the finished stacked layers
-1/2 batch of simple ganache (make sure it's still warm and spreadable)
-simple syrup (1 cup sugar and 1cup water, sugar dissolved completely in the water and cooled)

-Using a sharp knife, separate the plain, cocoa and currant cakes, trimming the edges so the cakes have clean edges and are equal in size.  Place the cocoa layer on a cake board and gently brush a thin layer of simple syrup with a pastry brush over the layer.
-Spread 1/3 of the jar of preserves with a small offset spatula over the cocoa layer and top with the plain layer.  Brush the plain layer with simple syrup and 1/3 of the preserves and top that with the currant layer.  Brush that again with simple syrup and add a few tablespoons of the preserves and using the offset, spread a very thin layer of the preserves over the surface to act as an adhesive.
-Double check to see that your rolled almond paste is large enough to cover the top of the assembled layers.  If it's too large, trim it.  Place it on top of the currant layer and spread a thin layer of ganache over the almond layer, about 1/8 thick.
-Chill in the freezer for about 1/2 hour.  Dip a sharp knife in a glass of very hot water and dry.  Score the ganache into 2" squares (I grab a ruler for this job.  I can't be trusted to eyeball anything with accuracy).  Clean the knife in the hot water often, making sure to dry completely.  Once you have the top scored, dip your knife in the hot water, dry it off and cut the squares, cleaning the knife between every cut to keep the layers clean.