Sometimes I feel the need to get up and bake at the strangest times! This idea came to me during Country File on a Sunday night and was ready to eat by the end of The Antiques Roadshow! I fancied making something quick and easy and challenging myself to go into the kitchen with no recipe and make something a little bit different to the norm from a recipe I had in my head for a basic fatless Swiss Roll .. so here is my Sour Cherry & Almond Swiss Roll. I am really pleased to say it came out really well, next time I might add slightly more colour paste to the pink stripe and might even experiment with some patterns.
The stripy pink sponge is just me being me and is totally optional ... this tastes exactly the same if you just want to make it without the stripes!
You will need:
3 large eggs
80g golden caster sugar
1 teaspoon almond extract
60g plain flour
20g ground almonds
Half a jar of sour cherry preserve (the best one I have found is available at Aldi!)
Pink food colouring (optional).
Swiss roll tin & parchment paper to line. 2 disposable piping bags. Extra parchment for rolling.
Grease and line a swiss roll tin with parchment paper. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C.
Break the 3 eggs into a large bowl with the caster sugar and almond extract. Whisk until the mixture has at least doubled in volume and is at the "ribbon" stage - when you lift the whisk out of the mixture you should be able to draw a little picture in the mixture and will take about 30 seconds to disappear. If it disappears before that .. whisk more!
Sift the flour & ground almonds into the mixture and carefully fold this in with a large metal spoon. You have used lots of energy getting the air into this mix to remember to fold - you need to keep the air in.
When the flour and almonds are incorporated remove 1/3 of the mixture and colour with the food colouring to your taste, FOLD the colouring in.
Place the 2/3 of uncoloured mixture into one of the piping bag and the 1/3 pink mixture into the other piping bag.
Snip the end off the bags and pipe the mixture into stripes. Keep an even pressure and the mix should be about 2cm deep.
Place the swiss roll tin into the oven on the middle shelf and bake for 10-12 minutes, the cake is done when it comes slightly away from the tin and shrinks.
Remove the cake from the oven and leave to cool completely in the tin.
When the cake is cool tip on to another piece of parchment paper and peel away the paper that was used for baking. Quickly and gently flip it over so the browned baked side is now facing towards you, the funky stripy side is hidden.
Spread the cake with an even layer of sour cherry preserve (any jam you fancy will do though - raspberry would also complement the almond flavour).
Roll the cake up into a tight roll, I find it easier to roll "away" from myself. Give the roll a quick roll forwards and backwards to seal it up and place the roll with the end on the bottom.
Slice and serve.
This recipe makes about 8 generous slices or 12 "dainty bites". As Swiss Roll has no fat content it goes dry quickly - store wrapped tightly in a piece of parchment paper or in an airtight container.
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