Oh! You have no idea how excited I am sharing this recipe with you. This comes from a pastry chef himself. So you can be sure that it works – perfectly! While you might have seen numerous recipes giving you 20 different steps to do it, a list of do's and dont's, separating the whites from the yolk, making simple syrup, folding 4 different ingredients in a specific order, and still not got it right! But now, the secret of awesome swiss roll is out. Such a fool proof recipe you will be compelled to make it at every given opportunity! Diligently follow measurements and the steps and you won't go wrong ever! (Do read notes at the bottom for tips and tricks!)
Two ingredients that make this super moist and flavorful is the warm mixture of milk + oil, and addition of honey respectively. Your cake will fold very easily and not crack and will have a lovely dewy flavor of honey!
I decided to make two swiss rolls each with a different flavor, since eating just one flavor can a little monotonous at times :). And if you can get two varieties from baking just one cake, why not! Oh, did I give this secret out too!! :)
So one swiss roll was made with strawberries, for which I used home made strawberry jam. While strawberry and cream is a classic combination in itself, but don't under estimate lemon and cream duo, as it is a super vibrant, fresh, zesty and bursting with flavor kind of combination. The tartness of the lemon and the sweetness of cream with the mellow honey flavored cake is a pure joy!!! You just HAVE to give it a try. Buy a bottle of good quality lemon curd, and you will know what I am talking about!!
I still can't get over this !!!
You need:
For the cake:
Large Eggs – 4
Egg yolk of 1 large egg- 1
Sugar – 80 Grams
Honey – 30 grams
Flour – 80 Grams
Milk - 30 Grams
Oil – 20 Grams
For the strawberry filling:
Whipped Cream – ½ – 1 Cup (depending on how creamy would you like it)
Strawberry Jam – ½ Cup (adjust as per your liking)
For the lemon curd filling:
Whipped cream - ½ – 1 Cup (depending on how creamy would you like it)
Lemon Curd– ½ Cup (adjust as per your liking)
- First keep the baking pan ready before starting with the cake batter because once the cake mixture is ready you will have to immediately bake it without wasting any time. If you wait for too long, the cake will not rise and will be chewy. To get started apply butter on the baking tray and line the baking tray with a parchment paper. Use a block of butter straight out of fridge and smear it all over the baking tray. That makes the baking paper stick nicely to the pan. Now place another parchment paper repeat the butter application. Now sprinkle some all purpose flour on the tray and tap it gently as you rotate the tray to uniformly coat the entire baking tray with a thin layer of flour. This will stop the cake from sticking to the tray. and with 2 layers of parchment paper, this becomes fool proof. Makes life easier :)
- Preheat the oven to 390°F (200°C).
- Add the eggs, egg yolk, sugar, and honey into a bowl and mix well.
- Now on a double boiler whisk this well till the mixture becomes lukewarm. If you have a candy thermometer the temperature of the mixture should be roughly 102°F (39°C ). If not, check the temperature with your finger, it should be lukewarm and not too hot, else you will have to a bowlful of sweetened scrambled eggs. And trust me they taste awful!! Some experiences are worth sharing :)
- Once the mixture is 102 F, take the bowl away from the heat and start mixing with an electric mixer. Note: this
- The mixture will turn into a cream. Keep mixing until there are no air bubbles left. This can take up to 10-12 minutes or more. Basically it should not fall off the whisk when you lift this mixture in your whisk.
- Add the sieved flour (all at once) and fold in slowly using a flat spatula. Be gentle as the mixture will lose all air bubbles and cake will fall flat if not folded in gently. Warm the milk and oil in the microwave and add it to the dough. Again fold in gently. The liquid tends to sink to the bottom of the bowl, so mix with a bottom-to-top movement.
- Pour the dough onto the baking pan and level it gently. Yes, please be gentle, this cake is a delicate baby.
- Here’s one more trick: To make sure that there are no big air bubbles left in the dough, drop the pan on the table once. OK OK.. I meant face up to let the gentle tap of hard surface at the bottom of the pan push all the air out. Ok, to simplify it further, hold the two ends of the tray and place it an inch above the table. Gently drop the tray. That's it!
- Put the pan into the oven and bake for 8-10 minutes at 390°F (200°C) until the surface turns golden brown.
- While the swiss roll is in the oven, make your tea/ coffee and enjoy it. (This is not a part of the recipe, you silly!)
- Once done, take it out of the oven and heavily drop it onto the table to let the steam in the dough go out. This steam could turn to water later and make the roll soggy. No we don't want a soggy swiss roll after all that whisking!
- Next, put another parchment paper on top of it and turn it around to make sure the cake is not sticking to any part of the tray. Carefully strip the baking paper from the top side.
- Now evenly spread the strawberry jam followed by whipped cream for the strawberry swiss roll, and lemon curd followed by whipped cream for the latter one.
- Gently roll with both your hands to form swiss rolls. The cake will be moist enough to easily roll without cracking. However, you can also use the following technique. Starting from the side closest to you, start to roll the cake using the parchment paper. Gently peel back the parchment paper as you keep rolling. Once done, keep the seam at the bottom so that it doesn't open up.
The baking pan I use has a size of 30x33 cm. If your baking pan has a different size, you need to scale the amounts of all ingredients accordingly.
For example, if you use a 40x40 cm baking pan, you will need to multiply all the amounts with: (40*40):(30*33) =1.6
If you plan to make two different rolls, each with a different flavor, cut the cake lengthwise into two long rectangles. Please, please, PLEASE don't cut into two squarish cakes even by mistake as you won't be able to roll it then. So to make it simple, imagine how the roll would look once its ready. And NOW, if you were to cut this swiss roll into 2 halves how would you cut. Just slice the cake along that very same line!!! Please don't tell me you still did it!! :)
