Chocolate Roulade

By lovinghomemade on January 13, 2013 • ( 5 )

Chocolate Roulade

Christmas Yule Logs might be old news but Chocolate Roulade is a great dessert – anytime you have friends over or need to take a dessert with you, this is much easier than you might think.

There is no flour in this recipe: it’s just eggs, sugar and chocolate so it’s important to get each step right but there really isn’t too much to it. It’s not supposed to roll easily; it should have cracks in it so it really doesn’t matter if it isn’t perfect.

Recipe

Ingredients

225g plain chocolate

85ml water

1 teaspoon instant coffee granules

5 eggs

140g caster sugar

200ml double cream

Method

Set the oven to 200°C. Line a large baking tray with baking parchment.

Break up the chocolate and put it in a heatproof bowl with the water and coffee granules. Set the bowl over a pan of simmering water and melt the chocolate, without letting it get too hot. When smooth remove from the heat.

Separate the eggs. Beat the yolks and all but one tablespoon of the sugar until pale and mousse-like.

Whisk the whites until stiff but not dry. Add the last tablespoon of sugar and whisk it in.

Mix the egg yolk mixture into the chocolate mixture and then add some of the egg whites to loosen it. Then carefully fold in the rest of the egg whites.

Pour the mixture into the pan and very gently make sure that it is evenly distributed, right into the corners.

Bake for 12-15 minutes until firm to the touch but be careful not too leave it too long or it will dry out.

Lift the baking parchment and slide the cake out of the tin onto a cooling rack. Immediately cover with a damp tea towel and leave to cool.

When the cake is cool and you are ready to fill it, whip the cream to soft peak stage. If you like you can add sugar to taste.

Take a large piece of greaseproof paper and dust it with caster sugar or icing sugar. Flip the cake over on top of it and carefully remove the parchment paper. Trim the edges if they seem a little hard as this will make it easier to roll.

Spread the cream evenly over the cake and roll it up tightly from one of the short sides. Once you have a bit of a roll started you can use the greaseproof paper underneath to keep pulling and rolling it tight.

As I said, it doesn’t need to look perfect. And if you really don’t think you can roll it, or if you think you may have slightly overdone it, you can cut it into three equal rectangles and sandwich the three layers together. It will still look amazing and taste delicious!

This recipe makes quite a large roulade. When I made mine I used three eggs, three fifths of all the other ingredients and a smaller baking tray, which is why it looks a little small in the photo.