Bake Along #20 – Swiss Rolls

Swiss Rolls are one of the fascinating dishes in the very long to-list of each ones baking bucket. Until the first time we make, its the most complicated thing ever too! So there has to be a first time for anything and this one can be one like that too. My previous attempts on swiss rolls, everytime it has been a success and so I never had nightmares while rolling it and I have never had cracks on top while rolling.

Having said that, if rules are followed this is the easiest recipe to follow, not too many processes for making the batter and the shortest time of baking. As you might be knowing I’m a person who follow rules. And so this has never been a miss. I have tried quite a few different recipes for making the rolls and this one I get back to everytime because of the fact that I dont have to separate the yolks and whites. Such a good news isn’t it :D.

Here I chose the simplest filling possible because I really had very little time to finish the whole process. But you have handful of choices to fill the roll depending on how you want them, to whom you would be serving it or so. I shall at the end of the recipe give you few options of fillings as well.

Ingredients:

Eggs – 3, at room temperature
Caster Sugar – 75 grams
All-purpose flflour – 75 grams
Salt – 1/4 teaspoon
Pure vanilla extract – 2 teaspoons
Zest of one lemon
Hot water – 1 tablespoon

For Filling:

Milk chocolate – 150 gms, I used morde
Fresh cream – 50 gms, used Non-diary whipping cream preferred to use dairy like Amul.

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 220 degree C. Line up a swiss roll pan/baking tray of size approximately 14 inches by 9 inches with butter/parchment paper and butter the paper. Sift together flour, lemon zest and salt. Keep aside.

2. To prepare filling/ganache: Chop the chocolate in a microwave safe bowl and add the cream to it. Microwave on high power for 1 minute. Stir once done. Check for lumps and microwave again for 30 seconds and stir for a while. If lumps found do microwave again at 30 seconds interval until smooth. Set aside to cool a bit but not fully set.

3. In a large bowl add the eggs and caster sugar. Start beating them until the eggs breakdown and starts mixing with the caster sugar. It will become frothy in the beginning and then it will slowly start to thicken up. Increase speed to high and keep beating for 5 minutes until the mixture becomes triple in volume, thick ribbon consistency and pale yellow colour.

4. Now using sprinkling motion add 1/3rd of the flour and use FOLDING motion using your spatula to incorporate the flour into the batter. Do NOT over mix. Its ok if there are few lumps of the flour thats not mixed well. Add pure vanilla extract and again use FOLDING motion to just until incorporated. Add the second part of 1/3th flour and again FOLD them into the batter. Everytime FOLDing happens, the egg mixture should not be deflated.

5. Add 1 tablespoon of hot water and again incorporate just until done and then the final portion of the flour and fold and incorporate. After all the process, the batter has to be thick and the consistency should have changed just about 10%. If you tend to use the spatula to over mix, the batter would deflate and the final texture would be a miss. Now pour it into the prepared pan and see that the batter is still thick and is not flowing by itself. Use an offset spatula or back of a spoon to spread it evenly all over the pan and smooth the top. Tap it down few times firmly to get rid of any air bubbles. Bake in pre-heated oven for about 10 minutes at 220 degree C, until the top is golden brown, well rised and firm to touch.

6. Meanwhile take a thin cloth and spread it over your counter. Keep icing sugar and sifter ready. Once cake is baked, take it out and place on cooling rack. Immediately dust some icing sugar on top of the cake. Now run knife through the sides releasing the cake from the pan and carefully invert the pan on the cloth ( here you see I have used my silicon mat, and you can use the same if you have). Remove the pan and peel the butter paper carefully.

7. Dust icing sugar on top of the cake after peeling the butter paper. Now while its hot, roll the cake along with the cloth from the shorter end. Let cool on wire rack until completely at room temperature

8. Unroll it carefully and spread over the filling and re-roll this time without the cloth, carefully and slowly. Voila, your swiss rolls are ready. Chill them in refrigerator and they are ready to be served with a dollop of ice cream, hot chocolate sauce and the presentations are endless!

Dust the top with icing sugar again. You can cover the top with some whipped cream and decorate with berries/cherries/chocolate shavings etc. I decided to keep it plain with dusted icing sugar and some edible cinnamon drops to decorate

Eggless Bakers : Bake Sailusfood Eggless Cake in 14 inch by 9 inch pan. Follow rest of the process as given above. In place of the thin cloth, use the same thin cloth again but dampen it with water and completely squeeze out the water. It has to be moist but not fully wet. Continue with the rest of the process as stated.

Filling choices:

Custard – Try recipe from joyofbaking
Buttercream with any flflavour additions, could be crushes or fruit squashes, fresh fruit puree, marmalade etc
Whipping cream with any flflavour additions again.
Buttercream / whipping cream with chocolate shavings, chocolate chips or even chocolate chunks
1 part custard mixed with 1 part buttercream /fresh cream and mixed with flflavours of choice.
Custard mixed with ganache
Custard mixed with crushed biscuits of choice
Buttercream/whipped cream mixed with chocolate or biscuits of choice.
To welcome the king of fruits, mango puree mixed with any cream base.

And it goes on endless. Traditional swiss rolls used only jams to be filled. You can also try to fill it with jam. Make sure to thaw the jam thoroughly and mix it well with spoon to loosen it nicely before spreading. If you like just the flavour of jam and do not want it that strong, you can mix the jam with buttercream or whipped cream and then spread it over.

Once cream is spread, those who would like nutty crunches can place chopped/whole nuts on top of the filling and then start rolling. Everytime you can make different kinds of swiss rolls and why wait!!

This has been baked for Fondbites, Bake Along, a group of enthusiastic bakers, bake one recipe every week along with me. To join the group, send a join request in the facebook group and I will add you to the group. You got to keep up to the spirits of the group by baking along with us each week.

Recipes of previous Bake Along can be viewed here

Members – Once after you finish baking, post the link of your finished picture below using the linky tool.