Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Who's a Swiss Miss?

So, after my trifle research I decided it would be best to make my own sponge, but considering my husband was so insistent on having Swiss roll, I decided to make one of them instead.

I have a pretty awesome recipe myself, but first I thought I'd see how Mrs B does it.
SWISS ROLL

INGREDIENTS - 2 eggs
4oz of flour
4 oz of castor sugar
1 teaspoonful of baking-powder
a little warm jam.


METHOD -
Sieve the flour and baking-powder. Whisk the eggs and sugar until creamy, stir the flour lightly in, turn into a greased tin and bake in a hot oven. Turn out upside down on to a sugared paper, spread on the jam, and roll up firmly.

TIME - From about 8 to 10 minutes to bake. SUFFICIENT for 1 medium sized roll.

For my recipe I actually modified a Buche de Noel recipe so I'll give you that instead.

BUCHE DE NOEL
INGREDIENTS - 1/2 cup of flour
3 tablespoonfuls of cornflour
1 teaspoonful of baking powder
3 eggs
1/2 cup of castor sugar
1/2 tablespoonful of cocoa (I omitted this for the Swiss roll)
2 tablespoonfuls of hot water
1/2 cup of cream, whipped (I used raspberry jam instead)

METHOD - Preheat oven to 190 oC. Sift the flours and baking powder. Separate the eggs, placing whites in a mixing bowl, and beat until stiff. Gradually add the sugar 1 tablespoon at a time and beat well after each addition. Add egg yolks and beat until mixture will form a figure 8 and resembles thick cream. Using a tablespoon, fold in the flour very lightly. If very thick, add the water. DO NOT OVER MIX. Pour into a baking tray lined with lightly sugared baking paper, and bake for 12-15 minutes. Turn baked sponge onto a tea-towel, remove paper, trim sides if needed and roll up towel and cake together. Allow to stand for 2 minutes. When cool, unroll gently, spread with cream and re-roll without the tea-towel. Cover with Chocolate Butter Cream.

CHOCOLATE BUTTER CREAM

INGREDIENTS - 30g of butter
125g of chocolate

METHOD - Stir the chocolate and butter over a double boiler until chocolate has melted. Spread over the log, mark with a fork to represent 'bark', spread over the ends as well. Refrigerate until required, dust with icing sugar before serving. Serve with chocolate leaves if desired.

4 comments:

The Prodigal Tourist said...

A trifle is a most noble and underappreciated confection! Here's my advice, from long experience: don't use brandy, it's too overpowering. Use a cream sherry instead. It'll add wonderful flavor without dominating (or evaporating!). Also, if you're using a swiss roll, try berries instead of jam -- I usually use frozen, I boil up the liquid the berries make when they thaw and add it to the sherry. Also, a real custard makes all the difference--and I always seem to need more than the recipe says! (I like whipped cream on top with some fresh berries and toasted almond slices, which is really gilding the lily, but isn't that what Christmas is for?) Last bit of advice, if you're still reading: Make it at least 24 hours before you're planning to eat it so the flavors can blend. Let me know how it turns out and Merry Christmas!

Anonymous said...

Your new picture is just adorable!
Merry Christmas!

atomicliving said...

This sounds a treat, and I wanna try even tho xmas is over! I love ur hair, do u just finger wave it and did u have to get a perm to help hold the style like the old days?

weenie_elise said...

thank you prodigal tourist - you will see my results soon i promise...

thanks trixie and atomic. i just fingerwaved my hair, i would get a perm but it would totally detroy my hair...