Black Forest Roulade

I was just waiting for this day. Yep, its Sweet Punch time again and this month I got to select the recipe. Now you know why I was waiting ;). As per the list made by the Sweet Punch team, it was either roulade or swiss roll. If you are wondering what’s the difference between the two, check out this. Roulades can be sweet as well as savoury. I decided to go for the sweet version, after all we are baking for “sweet punch” right ;)? You can read more about roulade here.

I selected roulade because it sounded fancy and also I remembered bookmarking a chocolate roulade recipe in my Martha Stewart baking book. But after going through the recipe I was a bit disappointed because it used raw eggs for the filling. Now I dont fancy any kind of raw egg in my food and decided to find out another recipe. I started going through all my baking books and finally saw this recipe in one of my fav books, Australian Women’s Weekly.

I wanted to make sure that the recipe works well, so I tried it before sending it to the baking group. I also got feedback from my friends about the same and I made some changes in the recipe based on their feedback.

Now about the recipe, it can be considered as a rich dessert, the base is made with chocolate & eggs without any flour and its filled with whipping cream & cherries. It’s very moist and its texture is kind of gooey. If you like chocolate flavor, I’m sure you will enjoy this. I was very much tensed about the rolling part, because it tends to break. Luckily it came out well, though there were some minor cracks.

I enjoyed baking and eating it too. Hope you will also enjoy it :) Dont forget to check out the roulade round up on Sweet Punch Website.

For the base:

1. Dark chocolate – 200gm, chopped coarsely
   Hot water – 1/4 cup (60 ml)
   Instant coffee powder – 1 tsp
2. Eggs – 4, separated (room temp)
   Caster sugar – 1/2 cup (110 gms)
3. Caster sugar – 1 tbsp, extra
4. Thickened cream – 3/4 – 1 cup ( I used whipping cream)
5. Kirsch – 1 tbsp

Cherry filling

1. Seedless black cherries – 425gm can
2. Cornflour – 3 tsp
3. Kirsch – 1 tbsp (refer notes)

Position oven shelves; preheat oven to 180 C. Grease 25 cm/30 cm swiss roll pan; line base with baking paper. Combine chocolate, water and coffee in large heat proof bowl; sit bowl over saucepan of simmering water. Using wooden spoon, stir until chocolate melts then immediately remove bowl from fire.
Beat egg yolks & sugar in small bowl with electric mixer until thick & creamy; this will take about 5 minutes. Using large metal spoon, fold egg mixture into warm chocolate mixture. Beat egg whites in small bowl  with electric mixer until soft peaks form. Using metal spoon, gently fold egg whites into chocolate mixture, in two batches. Spread mixture into prepared pan. Bake in preheated oven about 10 mins.

Meanwhile, place a large sheet of baking paper on board; sprinkle with extra sugar. Turn cake onto sugared baking paper; carefully remove lining paper, cover cake loosely with a tea towel. Cool cake to room temp.

Beat cream & kirsch in small bowl with electric mixer until firm peaks form. Spread cake evenly with cooled cherry filling then spread Kirsch cream over cherry mixture. Roll cake from a long side, using paper to lift and guide the roll; place on serving plate. Dust with cocoa powder. Cover roll; refrigerate 30 minutes before serving. You can also dress up the roulade  with cherries or by piping some cream on top.

Cherry filling

Drain cherries, reserving 1/4 cup (60ml) of syrup. Using knife, chop cherries coarsely. Using wooden spoon blend cornflour and reserved syrup in a saucepan. Add cherries; stir over heat until mixture boils and thickens. Remove from heat, cool to room temp.

My Notes:

• If you dont have a swiss roll tin, use a rectangular baking tin.
• I used canned red cherries instead of black cherries and cherry brandy instead of kirsch. If you cant find kirsch or cherry brand use the syrup from the canned cherries. I used chocolate with 50 % cocoa for the base.
• I find the taste of cherry brandy a bit dominating, adjust the qty of kirsch/brandy to suit your taste.
• The roulade is a bit delicate and tends to stick on to the baking paper, be careful while removing the paper and also while rolling.
• It’s a very moist roulade, its very soft even if you serve it straight out of the fridge.
• I used Al Marai whipping cream.

Notes & Tips from the Women’s Weekly Magazine:

• This cake is a cross between a mousse and a fallen souffle. It’s ideal to make it on the day of serving.
• To successfully make this cake, it is vital that the egg yolk/sugar mixture is beaten until thick and that the egg whites are beaten only until soft peaks form. Overbeating will dry out the egg whites and make it difficult to fold them into the chocolate mixture.
• To test if the cake is cooked, touch it with your fingertips: it should feel slightly firm and springy.

Storage:

• As per the AWW notes, the filled roulade will keep for up to 8 hours in an airtight container in the refrigerator. However I stored it for 2 days in the fridge and didnt notice any change in the taste or texture.
• As per the AWW notes, unrolled and unfilled roulade can be stored, covered with a piece of baking paper then a damp tea-towel, overnight in the refrigerator.