I’m pretty much all about a good dessert challenge. I believe that dessert should be eaten with every meal. But I do have a bone to pick with this Wednesday’s episode.
Though I haven’t looked at most of the recipes, it seemed to me that most people were baking swiss rolls and not roulades. Which is fair enough, because swiss rolls are delicious, but that’s not the challenge. And in fact, swiss rolls were a challenge that I completed baking along to Bake Off in 2014.
The other thing was that Paul and Mary were on about not having the roulades crack. But not only does food mecca Leiths say to embrace the cracks in a roulade, Mary Berry’s own cookbook says to as well. I quote the legend herself, ” Don’t worry if it cracks – that is quite normal and part of its charm!”
Armed with that knowledge I set out to make a chocolatey delight. But since I’m being judged the same way this weeks contestants were, I did not win Star Baker due to cracks. But cracks be damned! Roulade is delicious!
Gluten Free Chocolate Roulade
I wish someone gazed at me the way that I gaze at chocolate roulade.
Ingredients:
For the cake:
6 eggs
175 g plain dark chocolate
175 g caster sugar
For the filling:
300 mL of double cream
icing sugar for dusting
Instructions:
Start off by lining your baking pan. To be honest, mine wasn’t quite big enough. You need at least 23 cm in width, ideally.
Melt your chocolate bain marie. Let your chocolate cool for about 15 minutes until it is only slightly warm. Preheat your oven to 180 C.
Separate your eggs. In one large bowl, add all your yolks, and in another, your egg whites. Whip your egg whites until stiff peaks are formed.
Add your caster sugar to the egg yolks and mix until pale and creamy. Then stir in your melted chocolate. Next, add in a spoonful of the egg white mixture to loosen your batter before (very!) gently folding in the rest of your egg whites.
Pour into your pan and level quickly without knocking further air out of your mix. Bake for 15-20 minutes.
Place a piece of greaseproof paper on your workspace and sprinkle it with sugar. Once your cake is baked, flip it our immediately onto this paper. Carefully remove the baking paper. Then place a tea towel overtop the cake and roll in up (with the tea towel inside).
Then leave it aside to cool completely.
Make your whip cream by whipping your cream until peaks form. Unroll your rolled cake, and spread the whip cream over it. Then roll your cake up again and snip the ages off if they are uneven. Lastly, top it with a big dusting of icing sugar.
You’ll have to take my word that they were perfect swirls on the inside. In my hurry to cut a slice, I squeezed this one, making it look super messy. I’ll instagram a photo to prove my swirls later.
This week I have the pleasure of announcing our Botanicals Week Star Baker, we chose Kat from The Baking Explorer for her incredible looking Lemon & Elderflower and Orange & Honey Cake. Ala and I were blown away by her beautiful piping.
That’s it for this week!
Link up your bakes below:
