Recipe CXXIII - Norwegian Suksessterte

Having recently returned from the northern paradise that is Norway, both brimming with new ideas and aching with nostalgia for the serenity, advanced civilisation and heart-breakingly beautiful scenery, I came across a little gem of a recipe. Norwegians are big on food: lots come out of cans, as only a country half inside the Arctic Circle should, but when it comes to their recipes, the flavours are so different. They could be an acquired taste to some, but once you are used to them, they are a breath of fresh air.

I would like to introduce you to the Suksessterte, or Success Tart, in English. I was invited to the house of a splendid family for coffee (a Norwegian religion) and cake, and this one was there on the table, inviting and succulent-looking, so I cut myself a slice. It was so good, I had to get the recipe. Here is my effort, slightly changed from the one I got there, to reflect the proportions I used, and the ingredients on offer in Germany.

Ingredients:

Cream:
5 egg yolks:
100 ml double cream (I had to use mascarpone and some ordinary cream, because heavy cream/double cream and the like don't exist in Germany)
100 g ordinary sugar
150 g cold butter, sliced into cubes

Almond meringue:
5 egg whites
250 g ground almonds
225 g icing sugar

Topping:
Grated dark chocolate

Instructions for the cream:

Place the egg yolks, cream and sugar (NOT THE BUTTER) in a saucepan, put on a very low heat and stir until all the ingredients have melted into each other and it has become thicker. Use a spatula or a flat whisk to stir it - this should take about 15 to 20 minutes.

The mixture should not be allowed to boil or you will end up with bits of curdled egg in your mixture, and nobody wants to have that.

When it's all blended, take it off the heat, and add the butter piece-by-piece. Then get an electric mixer and whisk it for a good 5 to 10 minutes before placing it in the fridge until you have made the almond meringue.


Instructions for the almond meringue:
Put the oven on 160°C and take a square or round baking tray lined with baking paper.

Firstly, give the almonds a good pounding in the processor, to make the pieces extra small. Add the icing sugar and keep the food processor going until both ingredients have successfully mixed with each other.

With the egg whites, whisk them until they form the usual stiff peaks and then fold the almond-sugar mix into the egg white. 

Once homogeneous, transfer the mixture to the baking tray and put it in the oven for 30 to 35 minutes. In hindsight, I would not have used the baking paper, and just taken a chance with the baking tray's non-stick bottom. I will try this next time.

Once out of the oven, turn it upside-down onto a cake grid without the paper and let it cool.

Put your cake base on a clean cake tray, get the topping out of the fridge and start icing the cake with a spatula. Once you have covered it with the topping, grate chocolate on top.

Serve with copious amounts of coffee and invite your favourite visitors - vel bekomme!

Raymond's Recipe CXII - Chocolate and Almond Macaroon Biscuits

Christmas is approaching fast. With just over two weeks to go, I always realise that I am so woefully underprepared, that I just give up and let time take its course. However, I might fail to send an obscure great-aunt-in-law her annual bottle of outrageously pungent perfume that she likes, but I never forget the mince pies  or the Christmas puddings. 

One of the most important parts of this time of year is the food. I never neglect that. Over the years, I have always tried to outdo Christmas dinner from the year before, but now it's getting silly. If I carry on, I'll end up doing a multi-bird roast where you stuff a quail inside a pigeon inside a mallard inside a pheasant inside a chicken inside a duck inside a turkey, and that's not where I want to go, for I fear that would be my last meal on this mortal coil.

So I'm going for quality over quantity, starting with the sweet snacks. I made these as a trial run (hence the extraordinarily unphotogenic result), but over the next two weeks I will perfect them.

Ingredients:

100g plain chocolate, melted

150g blanched almond slices and 50g fresh almonds, coarsely ground

250g caster sugar

Three egg whites

1 tsp vanilla sugar 

Butter for greasing

Instructions:

Firstly, turn the oven on fairly low (160°C should do it), then line two baking sheets with greaseproof paper and grease the surface. Melt the chocolate in a bowl over some boiling water and whisk the egg whites until they form stiff peaks.

Put the almonds in a blender and once in very small pieces (the fresh almonds will be bigger than the blanched ones - this is good for flavour and texture), put them in a large-ish bowl and add the sugar, vanilla and fold in the egg whites. Be very gentle with the egg whites as you fold them in, because they play a vital role in the final consistency and need to retain some form of fluffiness.

Then add the melted chocolate, slowly folding that in until it looks a thick brownish lumpy custard:

To transfer them to the greaseproof paper, you can do one of two things. Either spoon very small balls the size of a £2/€2 coin leaving a large gap between each, or spread it evenly over the surface of the greaseproof paper and bake for 12 to 15 minutes, depending if you want them soft and tangy or hard and crunchy. You will need to do it twice.

I made one lot batch crunchy and one batch soft. I also broke them into rough bitesize pieces and put them in a biscuit tin.

Next time I'm going to spoon them onto the greaseproof paper and make individual ones.