Great British Bake Off Challenge: Chocolate Roulade

I made this a while ago, and the photos have been patiently waiting until I could be bothered to type it up! 

When my whole family got together just after Christmas (I told you this was old!), Mum knew I would happily make the dessert. A quick look down the list of Great British Bake Off technical challenges, and one definitely popped out at me...a decadent chocolate roulade. Now way back when I was doing my GCSEs, in Food Tech, we had to design a cake. I made lemon swiss roll with a variety of flavourings. I spent weeks trying out different flavourings, sizes, toppings and ingredients, and so I like to think of myself as a bit of a dab hand at rolled up cake! Whether its because of this past practise, or just because this cake was really easy, this came together beautifully, and left the whole family in a state of chocolately bliss! 

Ingredients:

6oz good quality dark chocolate

6 free range eggs

6oz castor sugar

2 tbsp cocoa powder

300ml double cream (this is how much Mary Berry's recipe asked for, but we used a lot less, maybe only 180ml or so)

Icing sugar, to dust

Method, with photos:

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan/Gas mark 4.

Line a 13x9 inch tin with greaseproof paper.

You start by melting the chocolate, then separate the eggs, with all 6 yolks in one large bowl, and all six whites in another. Whisk the egg whites until stiff (not dry, you should be able to hold them upside down without it falling out). Add the sugar to the egg yolks and whist until the mixture leaves a ribbony trail when the whisk is lifted.

Stir the melted chocolate into the egg yolks. 

Fold the egg whites into the egg/chocolate mixture. Do 2 tbsp first to loosen the mixture, then add the rest and fold in gently. Try to keep as much air in as possible. Sift in cocoa powder and gently mix in. 

Pour into a tin, and level by tilting the tin and gently encouraging with a spoon. Try not to squash out more air than you can help. Bake for 20-25 mins until risen and the top feels firm and slightly crisp. 

 

Once its out, leave it to cool completely in the tin. While its cooling, whip your cream. If you have a crazy father like mine who is convinced he can't eat cream, make some buttercream for his section. That does make it horrendously sickly, but my Dad has the sweetest tooth known to man! 

Once the roulade is cooked, get a large bit of greaseproof paper, sprinkle it with icing sugar and turn the roulade onto it, with a long edge nearest you. Peel off the paper that it was cooked with. Spread it with the cream, leaving a border along each long edge. Make a cut, about 1cm in from the edge, along the edge closest to you, halfway down through the sponge. Starting from this edge, roll it up. Be quite firm, and use the paper to help if you want. It doesn't matter if it cracks. 

Put it onto a serving dish and serve! It was DELICIOUS. It doesn't need anything with it, and you'll feel sick after even a small piece, but it'll be in that very satisfied, I still want to eat more kind of way. 

Next time you have a need for a fancy pudding, make this. You won't regret it! Just make sure there aren't too many people coming over. You'll definitely want leftovers. 

Original recipe is here, on  the Great British Bake Off section of BBC food

Cheer Us Up Brownies

I'm starting off by re-posting the few recipes I'd posted on my old blog.

I'm currently a baking and cake lover without access to an oven. To start with, this depressed me. Now, I'm learning that with a bread maker/rice cooker and a bit of creativity you can do a pretty good job of making cakes. I've been fairly successful at making lots of different types of cake in a rice cooker (biscuits are still beyond me, but I'm working on it!), but the most fool-proof I've found is my favourite recipe for Chocolate Brownies.

I think we got this recipe out of a Beaver (in England, they're young Scouts) annual, about 15 years ago, and my Mum and I have been making it frequently ever since. It's really chocolatey and gorgeously gooey, while still retaining a good cakey-ness. It's also so easy and, as I mentioned above, pretty foolproof. 

The name 'Cheer Us Up Brownies' was coined by a friend of mine. My Mum would always make them for us all when we were going off hiking, and they were the best thing to pull out at that moment when nobody felt they could take another step! After we all went off to University, my Mum made a lot of friends by posting them round to me and my friends when she knew we had exams!

If you want to make it into more of a dessert, serve them warm with cream or ice cream and some sort of berries (raspberries are best if you can get your hands on them). John and I just usually munch them as they are straight out of the rice cooker. Don't expect them to last long.

Ingredients

(If you're using an oven, I suggest doubling the amount below. If you're using a rice cooker/bread maker, this amount should be about right)

50g margarine or butter

50g dark chocolate (if you live in Japan, the ¥100 shop Daiso sell great stuff)

50g self raising flour OR 50g plain flour plus 1/2tsp baking powder

100g castor sugar

1 egg

Optional extras:

If you like your brownie really REALLY chocolately and gooey, add a tablespoon of cocoa powder and a splash of water.

If you want to be super indulgent, you can add 50g chocolate chips/chunks.

Some crazy people like walnuts in their brownie. Add 50g if you're so inclined.

Method

Melt the chocolate and marg/butter together. Microwave fine, just use a low/medium heat and stir frequently.

Stir in all the other ingredients, plus any/all of the optional extras you fancy.

For those lucky enough to have an oven:

Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/Gas Mark 4/350°F

Grease or line a baking tray, either about 7"x7" (15cm square) for the amount above or about 7"x11" (15cm x 22cm) if you followed my advice and doubled it. 

Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a knife stuck into it comes out almost clean.

For those of us with rice cookers/bread makers:

Lightly grease the cooking tin. Pour the mixture in and cook until a knife stuck in comes out almost clean. On my machine, I set it going on rice cook, leave it through the cook and steam phase, then repeat. After 2 cycles it's perfect. I guess it'll vary with different machines though.

Eat and Enjoy!