Tuesday, April 05, 2005

Hot Milk Sponge Roll with Berry Jam



I made this jelly roll as a prelude to Dilek's Erdbeer Charlotte. In fact, I made it twice: The first cake firmly got stuck on the parchment paper and refused to come off in one-piece. (The kids had to tear it into pieces to eat it.) The second time, I took the extra precaution of generously buttering and flouring the parchment paper--something I wouldn't normally do, and things were fine. After the roll was semi-fozen, I cut it into 1/4 inch slices and lined a mold. I proceeded with Dilek's recipe, but I used my Kojel brand vegetarian gelatine instead of her Agartine. Well, I think I should have used more of Kojel. The charlotte is in its mold resting in the refrigerator now, and I can not help myself from checking it every 20 minutes or so, to see if it is firming. Not really, so far. :( I am considering putting it in the freezer if things do not improve by tonight. I hope that it holds itself long enough for me to take a picture once I unmold it. Oh well, even if not, I know it will still make for joyful eating, since I tasted the filling and it was very, very tasty. Thank you, Dilek!

The jelly roll recipe is from Cocolat by Alice Medrich.

1/4 c milk
2 tbs butter, cut into small pieces
3/4 c sifted cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 c sugar
3 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
1/4 c strawberry and/or raspberry jelly mixture

Preheat oven to 400F. Line bottom of jelly-roll pan with parchment so that the paper overhangs the pan at 2 opposite ends. Heat milk with butter in small saucepan until butter melts. Reduce heat to low, and keep hot, but do not simmer. Sift flour with baking powder twice. Return to sifter and set aside. In large heatproof bowl, combine sugar, whole eggs and egg yolks. (I added some vanilla at this stage.) Hold bowl directly over a stove burner, whisking vigorously for about 1 minute until eggs are warm. (If you fear that the eggs will cook, you can alternatively set the bowl in a pan of barely simmering water, and whisk occasionally, until lukewarm to touch.) Now take off heat, and beat at high speed until mixture has cooled, tripled in volume, and has the consistency of thick whipped cream. Sift one-third of flour mixture over batter, and fold in gently by hand, using the largest spatula you have. Fold in half of remaining flour; then fold in the remainder. Pour the hot milk and butter into batter and fold well, scraping the bottom each time and bringing the batter up the sides of the bowl until you can no longer see traces of liquid. Turn batter into prepared pan. Bake for about 10 minutes. The cake will have browned on top, and started to shrink from the sides of the pan. Cool cake in its pan. Spread with 1/4 c or more of berry jam and roll tightly.