TWD- Oh The Humidity

Flying cross country from LA to West Palm Beach can be grueling, unless of course you get upgraded to first class (thanks Continental!), but it's worth the for the hugs. The first and best one coming from Mom, and next the embrace of the soft, humid Florida air. Yes, I love humidity. It makes my skin glow, my hair curl, it makes me happy. That old SoCal excuse, well sure it's 9o degrees but it's a dry heat, just doesn't do it for me. However, it is hell on baking. Whenever I go to Florida I try to recreate the desserts I make in my own kitchen, often to less than stellar results. Mushy eclairs, tart dough that keeps cracking apart- I blame my friend humidity. It's a good thing I waited until I got home to attempt this week's TWD, Coconut-Roasted Pineapple Dacquoise.
Getting those meringue layers to the crisp stage, and keeping them there, was quite an adventure. Unsure of whether or not I would enjoy this, I halved the recipe and made the meringue layers 6x3. Plus I was hoping it would cut down on the 3 hour baking time. 2 1/2 hours in they were still sticky and I was running late for a tennis lesson. I shut the oven off and left them in there while I was gone. One hour later they were perfect so I took them out and left them on the counter but by the end of the day they had started sticking to the parchment paper. I put them back in the oven for 20 minutes then shut off the heat and left them in there overnight. Even after all that, just sitting on the counter this morning while roasting the pineapple and whipping the ganache, the meringue had already begun to soften. I quickly assembled the Dacquoise and put it in the fridge. From the cook's treat I left my self (a spare piece of meringe dredged through ganache and coconut scraps) I can tell this is going to be swoon-worthy and well worth the effort.
For more Dacquoise fun, check out the TWD blogroll.