sour cherry chocolate roulade - 5 days of Christmas

sour cherry chocolate roulade - 5 days of Christmas

17 Dec 2014

Welcome to Day 3 of the 5 days of Christmas. Today I have a sour cherry chocolate roulade recipe to share with you. I've been making this chocolate roulade recipe, which originally came from the Australian Women's Weekly, for many years. Usually I fill it with whipped cream and fresh strawberries or raspberries. 



I'd planned to make a sour cherry version for last year's Delicious Bites Christmas post for decor8 but when a very similar roulade recipe appeared in Delicious magazine about the same time, I decided to put it on hold. Who knew it would take a year before the recipe finally made it to the blog?



This is a flourless chocolate cake and although it's quite simple to make, it's a little tricky to roll. As it's flourless, the texture is very delicate and the roulade will crack as you roll it. Here's my advice - don't try to fight the cracks. Just embrace them and move on.

The filling is very simple, just some unsweetened whipped cream topped with drained sour cherries. I was concerned the cake was quite sweet and any extra sugar in the filling would end up being sugar overload. If you like, you can dust the roll with cocoa rather than icing sugar. I think the roulade is best served the day of making but it keeps quite well for a day or two in the fridge. The roulade is rich so small slices will do.

For all my recipes, I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. All eggs are 60 grams and my oven is a conventional oven not fan forced, so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C.

Here's the recipe for you. 

Sour Cherry Chocolate Roulade - serves 8
Ingredients
125g (4 oz) dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 tbs boiling water
Four 60 gm (2 oz) eggs, separated

¾ cup caster sugar

For the filling
300ml cream
1 cup drained sour cherries
chopped pistachios
icing sugar or cocoa to dust
additional sour cherries

Method
Grease and line a 23x33cm Swiss roll tin with baking parchment. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F.

Melt the chocolate over a pan of gently simmering water. Add the boiling water and stir to combine. Put to one side and allow to cool slightly

Place the egg yolks and sugar in a large bowl. Whisk until the eggs are fluffy and thick enough to leave a trail when the whisk heads are lifted from the mixture. Stir in the chocolate mixture. Place the egg whites in a large grease-free bowl and whisk them until they form soft peaks. Gently fold the whites through the chocolate mixture until well combined.

Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for about 20 minutes or until the top of the cake is dry and the centre springs back when lightly touched with your finger.

Transfer pan to a rack. Cover top with 2 layers of damp paper towel and a tea towel. Place in the fridge for 20 minutes then remove towels (the dry top of the cake will come away with the paper) and allow to cool completely. Loosen edges with a sharp knife and sprinkle the top of the cake with icing sugar or cocoa. Lay a sheet of baking parchment out on the work surface and thoroughly sprinkle with icing sugar. Tip the roulade out onto the paper and carefully peel away the lining paper.

Whip the cream until it forms soft peaks. Spread the cream mixture over the roulade, scatter over the drained sour cherries. Score a mark 2.5cm (1 inch) in along the short edge, then roll up very tightly like a Swiss roll, using the paper to help. Don't worry if the roulade cracks as it rolls, it's supposed to. Transfer the cake to a serving plate and refrigerate until ready to serve. If the cake collapses a little, gently mould it back together with your hands. Here's a handy video featuring Mary Berry describing how to roll the roulade.

Decorate the roulade with some cherries, chocolate shards, chopped pistachios and an additional dusting of icing sugar or cocoa.



I took this into work last week and I can tell you if you bring this roulade along for dessert, your guests will be very, very impressed.

See you all tomorrow with Day 4 of the 5 Days of Christmas. 

Bye for now,

Jillian

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plate 2 plate - sour cherry chocolate almond biscotti

plate 2 plate - sour cherry chocolate almond biscotti

15 Dec 2014

Welcome to this year's edition of The 5 days of Christmas. This year's theme is cherries and chocolate and today I'm also bringing you the second Plate to Plate column. A few months ago, Juliana and I decided that we were going to bake and style a Christmas themed recipe for our second Plate 2 plate blog post. Juliana suggested a few things and in the end we chose a Williams Sonoma chocolate cherry almond biscotti recipe. 






Now I've only made biscotti once before and they weren't a great success, so I was keen to try another recipe. One of the key ingredients in this recipe, sour cherries, are a bit hard to find in Sydney but I eventually found them in the local health food store. As it's Christmas, I couldn't help myself and added some chocolate chips to the biscotti mix just to make the cookies a little more festive. Here's my take on the biscotti double baking process. 


Here's Juliana's.

I got myself into a little bit of trouble. I don't know if Australian flour is less absorbent than US flour or if my eggs were a bit larger but the biscotti dough came out very, very sticky. I was covered in biscotti dough; the bench top was covered in biscotti dough and I could barely scrape it out from the bowl. 

I kept adding flour until the dough was a bit more manageable but I was concerned all that extra flour would affect the final result.

Juliana also had problems with the recipe, though her problem was a bit different from mine. Here's her story.

Here's the recipe for you.
Ingredients

1¾ cups plain flour

1 cup granulated sugar

½ cup Dutch process cocoa powder, sifted

¼ cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1½ tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. baking soda

¾ cup dark chocolate chips

¾ cup dried sour cherries 

¾ cup toasted blanched almonds, coarsely chopped

3 whole eggs, plus 1 egg white

1 tsp. vanilla extract

 
Method

Position racks in the upper third and lower third of an oven and preheat to 325°F/170°C. Line 2 baking sheets, preferably insulated sheets, with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, granulated sugar, cocoa, brown sugar, baking powder and baking soda until well mixed. Add the chocolate chips, the cherries and almonds and toss with your hands to distribute them evenly. 

In another bowl, whisk together the whole eggs, egg white and vanilla extract. Pour into the dry ingredients. Using a fork, mix together the dry and wet ingredients, taking care to work all the bits of dry ingredients into the dough. This will take about 5 minutes. The dough will be dense and sticky. Divide the dough in half.

Place a piece of plastic wrap 18 inches long on the countertop. Transfer half of the dough to the plastic wrap. Lightly moisten your hands with cold water to prevent the dough from sticking to them, then shape the dough into a flattened log 12 inches long by 2 1/2 inches wide by 1 inch high. Lifting the plastic wrap and cradling the dough, flip the dough onto the centre of one of the prepared baking sheets. Repeat with the remaining dough, flipping it onto the second prepared baking sheet. 

Bake the logs until they are dry to the touch and firm in the centre when pressed with your fingers, about 30 minutes. They will spread considerably and may crack slightly on top. Transfer to wire racks and let the logs cool on the pans for 30 minutes. The logs will still be slightly warm to the touch. Leave the oven on.

Carefully transfer the logs to a cutting board and set the parchment-lined pans aside. Using a serrated knife, cut the logs crosswise on the diagonal into slices 1/2 inch wide. Arrange the slices, cut side down, on the lined baking sheets, placing them close together but not touching. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and, using tongs or a spatula, turn the biscotti. Continue to bake until dry and crisp, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and transfer the biscotti to wire racks to cool completely. Store the biscotti in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 weeks. Makes 4 dozen cookies.

Adapted from Williams-Sonoma, Essentials of Healthful Cooking, by Mary Abbott Hess, Dana Jacobi & Marie Simmons (Oxmoor House, 2003).


Here's how Juliana styled her biscotti.





Here's how I styled mine.




The lovely gold garland is from here.

Juliana's look so festive, don't they?



These taste great straight from the oven when the chocolate chips are still all melty but actually taste even better when they're a few days old. I always dunk my biscuits (I can't help myself) and these are perfect for dunking as they're quite sturdy. I've made these biscotti  twice now and the second time I made them in my stand mixer using the dough hook. I increased the flour to 2 cups and was more prudent adding the eggs and had no trouble the second time around.






The cookies all packed ready to distribute to my neighbours for Christmas.

See you all again tomorrow with some more Christmas Baking!

Jillian

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