I recently made a Swiss Roll for my father’s birthday and although it worked out alright in the end, I made a few mistakes along the way. Here are a few factors that I think you should consider when trying to bake the perfect Swiss Roll.
If you decide to make a Swiss Roll you need to be aware that the amount of eggs required can vary, as the thickness of your Swiss Roll sponge will largely depend on the number of egg whites. More specifically, you will need to whisk the egg whites separately from the egg yolks until stiff peaks form. This whisking will bring air into the mixture. The more egg whites the recipe calls for, the more your cake will rise. However, make sure that you don’t over-mix the batter when you add the egg whites to the egg yolks mixture. Avoid using a whisker to mix in the egg whites as they need to be added by hand, folding them in until there are no longer any white streaks of flour visible.
Secondly, think about your filling. I say this because a buttercream filling will take longer to prepare than a jam filling. I am definitely a fan of using chocolate buttercream. You will need more time to prepare a pudding based buttercream since you prepare a pudding from scratch and then let it cool for a few hours. At the same time, you should make sure that the butter is at room temperature when you mix both together. However, you can always use the buttercream to decorate the top as an added bonus.
That being said, you need to decide when to make the buttercream filling. I usually make the chocolate pudding the day before baking the sponge. This way the pudding can cool down overnight and the next day I bake the sponge, let it cool down and prepare the buttercream in the meantime.
You have probably started to wonder, how you can make sure that your Swiss Roll doesn’t have any cracks. When you take the sponge out of the oven, have a moist towel sprinkled with sugar already prepared. It is very important that the towel you put your warm sponge on is moist but not soaking wet. Also, when you try to remove the parchment paper from the sponge, brush it with water and it will come off more easily. After that use the towel to roll the sponge and leave it to rest until it has cooled down, this is important for its shape. The moisture of the towel will be passed on to the sponge so that it will stay soft during the cooling process.
Now you only need to fill the sponge with buttercream and serve it to your friends and family. I hope you have seen that making a great Swiss Roll isn’t just luck and if you follow the tips above, nothing should hold you back from creating your perfect Swiss Roll.
Image Sources
1. (How to fold in eggs whites) http://dailydelicious.blogspot.de/2011/08/tiramisu-de-fraises-strawberry…
2. (Rolling sponge)= http://pis2102.wordpress.com/2012/04/25/swiss-roll/
3. (Swiss roll filled with chocolate buttercream) Photo taken by myself