Raspberry and Pistachio Roulade

A beautiful red and green dessert which scream Christmas, but can be an all year round pleaser.

Roulades are impressive, but look intimidating to make. One of the signature characteristics of roulades however, are that they are meant to crack a little – so do not stress about getting a perfect flawless roll. What is more, the outside gets covered with a cream, so even if it does crack, nobody will ever know!

This recipe is closely adapted from Yotam Ottolenghi and Helen Goh’s book, Sweet.

If you make this recipe, please share it with me by tagging me on Instagram @adventureswithsugar or on Facebook at Adventures with Sugar.

WHITE CHOCOLATE CREAM:

• 200g good quality white chocolate, roughly broken
• 80g softened butter
• 250g cream cheese, room temperature
• 230ml whipping cream, chilled
• 1/4 tsp almond extract

METHOD:

1. Melt the white chocolate, in 10 second bursts in the microwave. White chocolate burns quick, so keep a close eye on it. Then set aside to cool.
2. Beat the butter on medium speed for about 30 seconds, then add in the cream cheese and continue to beat.
3. Finally, add in the melted white chocolate and continue to beat until just mixed.
4. In another bowl, whip the cream and almond extract to soft peaks, then fold into the white chocolate mixture until soft waves form.

ROULADE:

• 70g unsalted shelled pistachios, plus more for decorating
• 4 large eggs
• 130g caster sugar
• 2 Tbs hot water
• 80g self-raising flour
• 1/8 tsp fine salt
• 1/4 tsp almond extract
• 20g icing sugar
• 250g fresh raspberries

METHOD:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius. Line a swiss roll tin (around 33cm * 25cm tin) with baking paper and set aside.
2. Blitz the pistachios in a food processor until they are fine. Make sure that you do not over blitz them, or it will start to give off oil. A few coarse bits of nuts are fine. Set this aside.
3. Separate the egg whites and egg yolks.
4. Place the egg yolks in a bowl, together with the sugar and whip on high speed for around 6 minutes, until the mixture has tripled in volume and holds it shape when dropped onto the batter, before disappearing into it.
5. Slowly dribble down the hot water into the bowl.
6. Then fold in the pistachios, it does not have to be fully incorporated at this point.
7. Sift the flour and salt together, then fold into the pistachio and egg mixture.
8. With a clean beater attachment, whisk the egg whites to soft peaks and add in the almond extract. In three batches, fold this into the pistachio mix.
9. Scrape the batter into a tray and bake for 15 – 18 minutes, until the cake has gently browned on the top and springs back when lightly touched.
10. Set the cake aside to cool for 5 minutes.
11. Sift half the icing sugar over the top of the sponge, whilst still in the tray, and cover with a tea towel. Place a wire rack on top, then flip the cake over so that the wire rack is now underneath the tea towel and the cake. Lift off the tray, carefully peel away the paper and lightly dust the top of the cake with the remaining icing sugar.
12. With one of the short ends of the cake facing toward you, roll up the still warm cake, in the tea towel. Allow the cake to rest for 10 minutes, still rolled up in this tea towel, then unroll the cake and set aside to come to room temperature.
13. When ready to assemble, use a small spatula to spread about two thirds of the chocolate cream on the sponge. Leave a boarder of about 2cm without any cream at the short end of the cake, furthest away from you.
14. Place all but 12 of the raspberries evenly over the cream, then roll the cake up as you did before, but this time without the tea towel.
15. Transfer your cake to your serving platter and spread over the remaining cream.
16. Decorate with the remaining raspberries and more pistachio nuts.

Recipe by adventureswithsugar.com