Mission 7: Haselnussroulade mit Mokkacreme

I’ve never made a Swiss roll cake before starting on this project; now I’ve done two of them!  There is no end to the wonder of European cakes and pastries, and this one is especially easy to put together.  A quick sponge cake is rolled up with a decadent mocha whipped cream for a great dessert (or, ahem… breakfast!) appropriate for any time of year.

I’ve obviously got some sort of issue with the cake/cream proportion though.  As evidenced from the photo, I want to stuff the lot of cream into the cake and damn the consequences!  It tastes good, and my coworkers said that they don’t have a problem with too much whipped cream (does anyone, really?) but we have to consider proportion and balance of flavors when assembling any creation.  I’d be more concerned if I were selling these for a living, but since I’m just baking them to bring pleasure to the masses, I’ll keep doing what I’m doing.

Only one photo to share on this post, unfortunately.  When I got done baking on Tuesday night, it was 11:00 and my creative arranging of cake and props was clouded with fatigue.  I had planned to take more pictures the next morning, but my poor little cake didn’t look so good.  It tasted fantastic (especially for breakfast!) (I know, I know, but I just couldn’t help taking just a small slice!) but you know how food settles after it’s been sitting for a while…  I’ll be more diligent next time, rebels!

To the recipe!  (As always, taken from Kaffeehaus by Rick Rodgers)

Haselnussroulade mit Mokkacreme

Ingredients:

Cake

• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped toasted and peeled hazelnuts
• 1/2 cup cake flour
• pinch of salt
• 6 large eggs, at room temperature
• 2/3 cups sugar
• 3 tbs canola oil
• confectioners’ sugar, for garnish

Mocha cream

• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 2 tsp instant espresso powder dissolved in 1 tbs boiling water
• 2 tbs confectioners’ sugar
• 6 oz bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

Method:

1. To make the cake: see directions from my post on Rigo Jancsi for the method on creating the sponge.  The method still applies; just use the ingredients listed above forthe dry ingredients.  Before turning cake out of the pan, dust with confectioners’ sugar and cover with a clean tea towel.  Invert the pan, peel off the parchment, and roll cake in the towel, using it as an aid to create a tight coil.  Cool completely in the towel.
2. To make the mocha cream: bring the cream to a simmer in a medium saucepan over medium heat.  Remove from heat and whisk in confectioners’ sugar and dissolved coffee.  Place the chocolate in a medium bowl and pour the cream mixture over. Let stand for 3 minutes, then whisk until chocolate is melted and smooth.
3. Cool mocha cream by placing it in the freezer for five minute intervals and then removing and whisking.  Repeat as necessary until cream is cold, but not set.  When cream is cold enough, beat with a handheld mixer until fluffy and stiff enough to spread.  Do not overbeat.
4. Unroll the cake and spread with (as much of) the mocha cream (as you want – you can make it all fit, trust me!) leaving a 1/2-inch border on all sides.  Roll the cake and dust generously with confectioners’ sugar to hide any cracks and increase the decadence value.  Refrigerate for one hour.  Slice with a serrated knife and serve to your adoring crowd!

It’s fun doing this project with European pastries, but I’m leaving myself some time to get excited to come back to it rather than slavishly pounding through all the recipes like some obsessed crazy person.  Look for more bread experiments and endeavors into other cuisines as I increase my repertoire.  Scandinavian baking is calling to me (for some unknown reason – I have been eating a lot of rye bread lately) so I think I’ll do some exploring in that region of the world (figuratively, that is – from my kitchen.)

Thanks for reading, everyone!  I love sharing this adventure with you all!

13 Nov This entry was published on November 13, 2014 at 8:31 pm. It’s filed under Baking, Cake, Chocolate, Food photography, Recipes and tagged cake, Chocolate, coffee, cream, Hazelnut, Kaffeehaus, mocha, Swiss roll. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.