In honor of the new year, I made the famed Norwegian dessert Success Tart. It is my way of starting 2019 with the best possible foot forward. Sure, I could have made a “hope cake”, or a “fingers crossed” woven bread, but I decided to cut to the chase. This year is going to be a success, I can feel it. In order to bring about a successful life I am going to do what lights me up. That is my one resolution for the year. I figure, I can’t go wrong with that intention. And what lights me up at this very minute is the glorious, golden speckled, Success Tart. It’s made up of individual, delicious layers, each their own baking lesson, and together they create a masterpiece. And I’ll have you know that I made the Success Tart three times. I couldn’t get it quite right. Two were complete failures. The last one was a complete success. Each one lit me up.
I adapted this recipe from the baking book Norwegian Cakes and Cookies by Sverre Saetre. It is composed of an almond dacquoise (almond meringue cake), vanilla cream, a thin layer of marzipan, and a dark chocolate ganache. Let’s do it.
Begin with the vanilla cream as it needs a few hours in the refrigerator to firm up. I found that the most important part with making the vanilla cream is to constantly whisk the egg yolks, cream, sugar, and cornstarch while over medium-heat. This will ensure a smoother texture. Remove from the heat when it is thick and has reached a temperature of 180º F. Strain through a sieve and then stir in salted butter.
While the vanilla cream is chilling make the daquoise. Start by whipping egg whites and sugar until you get stiff peaks.
Then fold in ground almonds and powdered sugar. By the way, the biggest lesson when making the daquoise… how to properly fold ingredients. Here’s a video that will help.
Pour the batter into a prepared springform pan, and gently smooth out the top. Bake in a 350º F. oven for about 30 to 35 minutes.
While the cake cools get on with the ganache. Oh, the ganache! That lovely, thick, chocolaty goodness made up of dark chocolate, heavy cream, sugar, and corn syrup.
Thankfully, the assembly is quite easy. Layer everything up. Begin with the dacquoise, and then pipe the vanilla cream on top. Place a round, thin, layer of marzipan on top of the vanilla cream.
Cover it all in the ganache…
…and then sprinkle gold dust (I splurged) over top. Refrigerate for at least two hours to allow the ganache to set.
Here’s to you and your success, my friends! Happy New Year!
Success Tart
Notes
Special equipment needed:
Saucepan, whisk, candy thermometer, sieve, 8-inch springform pan, food processor, standing mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, rubber spatula, offset spatula, wire rack, handheld blender, rolling pin, piping bag, baking sheet parchment paper
Ingredients
For the vanilla cream
- ½ cup Whole Milk
- ½ cup Sugar
- 1 Large Egg
- 4 Large Egg Yolks
- 2 tsp. Cornstarch
- 5 TBS (71 g) Salted Butter, cold and cubed
- 1 tsp. Vanilla Bean Paste
For the almond cake (dacquoise)
- 1 and ¼ cups (150 g) Raw Almonds
- ¾ cup (100 g) Powdered Sugar
- 4 Egg Whites (120 g), at room temperature
- ¼ cup (50 g) Sugar
For the ganache
- 7 oz. (200 g) Dark Chocolate, finely chopped
- 2/3 cup and ¼ cup Heavy Cream (keep the 1/4 cup cream cold)
- ¼ cup (50 g) Sugar
- 1 and ½ TBS (25 g) Corn Syrup
For assembly
- Marzipan
- Edible Gold Dust
Instructions
To make the vanilla cream
- In a saucepan over medium heat, whisk together the milk, sugar, egg, egg yolks, and cornstarch until it begins to boil. Continue to whisk for another 20 seconds. Have a candy thermometer handy to gauge the temperature. The mixture is ready when it has thickened, and reached 180 degrees F.
- Remove the saucepan from the heat, and strain the mixture through a sieve into a clean bowl. Stir in the cold butter pieces until fully melted, and then stir in the vanilla bean paste.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Be sure that the plastic is touching the cream so as not to develop a “skin”. Chill in the refrigerator for at least two hours, or overnight.
To make the almond cake (dacquoise)
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and line the bottom of an 8” springform pan with parchment. Lightly grease the parchment. Set aside.
- In a food processor, pulse the almonds and powdered sugar together until it becomes a fine powder. Set aside.
- In a bowl connected to a standing mixer, and fitted with a whisk attachment, whisk the egg whites until they begin to foam. While running the mixer on high, slowly pour in the sugar. Whisk until the egg white mixture has thickened, and has stiff peaks.
- Carefully and gently fold 1/3 of the almond mixture into the egg whites. Do this by slicing through the middle with a rubber spatula, and carefully scooping the mixture up and laying it on top. Turn bowl, and repeat until it is all incorporated. Fold in the next two thirds of the almond mixture separately until all is combined.
- Gently scoop the batter into the prepared springform pan. Smooth out the top with an offset spatula.
- Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the top of the cake springs back when lightly pressed. Cool on a wire rack.
To make the chocolate ganache
- Pour the chopped chocolate in a medium-sized, heat-proof bowl. Set aside.
- In a medium-sized saucepan, bring the sugar, corn syrup, and the 2/3 cup of heavy cream to a boil. Stir the mixture. As soon as it's boiling pour over the chopped chocolate. Be sure that each chocolate piece is covered by the cream mixture. Let sit for 1 minute, and then slowly stir the chocolate mixture until it smooths out completely. Once smooth, pour in the ¼ cup of cold cream while still stirring. This will make the ganache shiny.
- If there are still solid bits of chocolate then blast with a handheld blender until smooth.
- Set aside to cool for about 10 minutes.
To assemble
- Between two pieces of parchment, roll out the marzipan to a rough 8” circle. From this circle cut out a neater 7” circle. Set aside.
- Remove the almond cake from the springform pan (it can remain on the removable bottom part of the pan) and place it on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Fill a piping bag with the vanilla cream, and pipe the cream neatly on top of the cake. Place the marzipan round on top of the cream.
- Gently balance the cake on a study glass cup in the middle of the parchment-lined baking sheet. Slowly pour the ganache over top the cake, allowing the chocolate to fall down and coat the sides.
- Sprinkle the gold dust over top.
- Refrigerate until ready to serve.
