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!

Recipe LIII - Two-In-One: Spotted Dick (without suet) and Custard, plus a Chocolate Mousse spin-off

Yes, you read it right: Spotted Dick. No, this is not an article on sexual health, it is actually an old English pudding. And one of the most delicious things to ever come out of my kitchen. It is known as "spotted" due to the currants in it. The name "dick" is said to come from the Dutch/German word for dough (Deeg/Teig). In any case, it is king of the puddings at the moment in my house. It is traditionally made with suet, which is beef kidney fat, an unattractive prospect at the best of times. But its 21st-Century remake is done with butter, flour and sugar. The reason there are two recipes this week is because for the custard, I needed some egg yolks, which give the custard its yellowish hue. I only used four, because I think it an exaggeration to waste so many eggs simply to colour up the custard. I could then recycle the whites to make a chocolate mousse. The great thing about these three items is they follow each other in a sequence as you make them and don't require you to do too much at one time.

Ingredients for the Spotted Dick:
100g flour
Half a teaspoon of baking powder
A handful of raisins
A tablespoon of cinnamon
1 pinch of salt
100g butter
100g sugar
2 large eggs
A dribble of milk
I included some treacle (Karamell) in the photo because you could make a treacle version by putting some in the bottom of your bowl before steaming. I didn't.



Instructions:
Put the sifted flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. In another bowl, put the sugar and butter. rub the butter and sugar together really well until they become consistent. Add one egg and a tablespoonful of flour. Fold it into the mixture. Repeat with the second egg. Now put in the remaining flour, the raisins and a dribble of milk to help the moistness. Finally, add the cinnamon.



Your preparation should look something like this:



Put the mixture into a heatproof bowl of about 750ml, seal it with tin foil and put it into boiling water, making sure no water is high enough to not enter the bowl (I put a jam pot lid in the bottom of the saucepan to keep it up). You will need to boil it for about 2 hours.
To remove it, take off the foil, put a large enough plate over the top of the bowl and turn it upside down onto the plate.


In the meantime, you can make the custard.

Ingredients for the custard:
500ml of milk
100 ml of cream
4 egg yolks
1 vanilla pod
40g fine sugar
2 teaspoons of cornflour



Instructions:
Take the eggs and separate their yolks from their whites. Put the whites aside for the mousse. Take the yolks, the sugar and the cornflour, and mix them together in a bowl very, very well.



Heat the milk, cream and the vanilla pod (split open) slowly. Before it boils, pour it into the bowl with the yolks, stirring with a whisk until consistent.



Put it back into the saucepan and allow it to thicken. Serve it immediately on your spotted dick.



Chocolate Mousse - Ingredients:
600g cooking chocolate (broken into pieces)
Those 4 egg whites
40g sugar
100ml cream (thick if possible, but not essential)

Instructions:
Put the egg whites in a mixer and whizz them until they are nicely fluffy and produce peaks. Add the sugar and do it a little more.



In a saucepan, put the chocolate into a heatproof jug and melt it.



Whip the cream for a bit to get it airy. Fold the melted chocolate into the cream with a wooden spoon, then fold in the whipped egg whites. Make sure it is a consistent mixture before you put it into dessert bowls.



Put the bowls into the fridge and let them set. Serve when you're hungry!