Well after much procrastination and initial thoughts about eggnog cupcakes I decided to take my inspiration from the Kir Royal drink of cassis and champagne.
I have attempted to morph this famous french tipple into a cake by making a swiss roll and filling it with home made blackcurrant jelly and a marc de champagne white chocolate ganache.
I have never yet made a good swiss roll sponge and today was no exception. They always end up with a grainy texture. I even whisked this one over a bain-marie in the hope that this would produce a more homogeneous batter but no, once again the sponge came out a little too coarse and grainy. Just as well then that I had a good thick layer of blackcurrant jelly and champange ganache to distract from the texture. If anyone can offer an explanation for the grainyness I would be very grateful.
I was quite pleased with the flavour though, particularly the wonderful intensity of the blackcurrant layer, and after allowing the ganache to set the roll was producing far neater slices when cut.
The swiss roll recipe was the usual ratios of 1 egg to 1oz of flour and 1oz of caster sugar with a few tabs of hot water and I used a 3 egg mix.
The blackcurrant jelly was made from home grown blackcurrants that had been simmered until soft and then sieved to remove the pips before adding just enough sugar to get a soft set gel when boiled.
The ganache was a tinker as you go along affair but the ingredients were white chocolate, butter, marc de champagne and a little hot water. I wanted a relatively soft ganache and not too rich hence adding water instead of cream.
I am submitting this to the organisers of the We Should Cocoa challenge Chocolate Teapot and Chocolate Log Blog
I've got to say that this looks like a good swiss roll to me and I love the idea of the kir royale. The graininess is a bit of a puzzle. The normal cause of graininess is a lack of whisking but clearly that's not the case here.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Phil, that looks like a perfect Swiss roll. Can't comment on graininess as I usually mix wholemeal flour in mine, but you've clearly mastered the rolling technique. Both your ganache and blackcurrant jelly sound delicious - a top notch entry to WSC. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteCrikey, I've just noticed your bookshelf - 802 books, your library must be phenomenal. I think I've got one digit less than you and have a grand total of 82.
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