Great British Bake Off - Week 1: Swiss Rolls

It was at the end of the Great British Bake Off last year that I thought it would be cool to go along with their weekly themes and I realized I'd have to wait a full year to implement this idea. But here we are; GBBO may be on a new channel and I don't know anyone's name except Paul Hollywood but we're moving forward with this weekly challenge.

The first week's theme was cake. I've learned a bit more about the preparation for the different rounds and I think I could maaaaybe get through the first two challenges but holy guacamole, show stoppers. Definite weak spot. Initially I was going to just make a cake and be all sorted. But instead, I opted to go for the technical challenge.

 

I made a yule log a couple years ago (I shudder as I link you to that ancient post with terrible photography and lighting...not that I've improved much) and this seemed very similar, just smaller. The commercialized version of this is a ho ho in the US so there's that too.

These would definitely not pass the criticism of the bake off judges as they are definitely not symmetrical although they do have a nice swirl, in my amateur opinion. I also just couldn't bring myself to make more dirty dishes and melt white chocolate for the drizzle. We'll live.

Other things to keep in mind:

• Yes, you need parchment paper even if it means going back into the store and waiting in line again
• Yes, the egg whites will eventually become stiff peaks even if you've been beating them for 10 minutes already and think it will never happen
• Yes, you need a bigger bowl
• Yes, you can lose some of the crunchy edges to make the cake easier to roll
• No, the world won't end if there's no white chocolate drizzle

Recipe 
from GBBO website

Cake

• 30g butter, melted (keep the wrapper for greasing)
• 60g cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 Tablespoon boiling water
• 6 large eggs, separated
• 150g sugar (divided into 100g and 50g)

Filling

• 150g butter, softened
• 300g icing sugar (powdered sugar)
• 1 teaspoon peppermint extract (or not if you think it will taste like toothpaste)

Topping

• 200g plain chocolate
• 200g milk chocolate
• 100g white chocolate (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease and line a deep baking dish (or jelly pan or brownie pan, just don't fill it all the way up) with butter and parchment paper. Also grease the parchment paper.
2. In a small bowl, mix the melted butter with the cocoa powder, boiling water and vanilla.
3. In a medium bowl, beat together the egg yolks and 100g of sugar until smooth. Add the chocolate mixture to the egg mixture and beat until incorporated.
4. In a large bowl, beat the egg whites for eternity until stiff peaks form. The egg whites need room to expand and become fluffy. Add the 50g of sugar after the peaks form, whisking until combined.
5. Mix 1/3 of the egg white mixture into the chocolate mixture to increase the volume and loosen the cake mix. Fold in the remaining egg whites until incorporated.
6. Pour the cake mix into the prepared pans (if you only had one pan, use half the mixture and then repeat for the second round). The cake mix shouldn't spread too much on its own so spread it evenly in the pan. The mix will rise during baking but then settle back in so will be relatively thin and as deep as you pour it.
7. Bake until firm, 15-20 minutes.
8. Allow the cake to cool completely before doing the filling and rolling.
9. For the filling, beat together the butter, icing sugar and peppermint until fluffy.
10. Once cooled, place the cakes on a cutting board or other clean surface. Carefully peel back the parchment paper and discard.
11. Spread the filling evenly across the cakes. 
12. Gently roll the cake from the short end 2-3 times, until you reach the middle. Repeat on the other side of the cake so one sheet makes two rolls.
13. Cut the cake rolls where the two sides meet. Cut the rolls into even sections so you have 6 mini rolls per pan.
14. Allow the rolls to set while you prepare the chocolate topping by melting the plain and milk chocolate together in a double boiler.
15. Pour the chocolate over the rolls to coat. It's neatest to do this on a cooling rack with a tray beneath to catch the excess chocolate.
16. Lastly, melt the white chocolate on its own and pour into a piping bag (or ziploc bag with the corner cut off). Drizzle each roll with the white chocolate.
17. Enjoy! And put your feet up because this is a lot of steps. 

Brownie Cake

The town I grew up in was small. Half-way through high school, we moved from the downright rural outskirts to the hoppin' town center whose main attractions were an old one-room movie theater and a Starbucks. Like the cool teenagers we were, we frequently met at Starbucks to not drink coffee because we didn't like it yet but to have very sugary non-coffee drinks and eat the pastries. One such pastry was a mint-chocolate brownie that I described at the time as tasting like it had all the love in the world baked into it.

Fast forward 10 years (oh goodness) and I'll take my Starbucks as plain as you please except sometimes with caramel because my young heart likes to honor my 16 year-old self's obsession with the stuff. Starbucks doesn't have that mint brownie anymore but I was reminded of it as I made this brownie cake in a heart-shaped pan. My pan selection has greatly diminished since moving abroad but it means I make due with what's available. Realistically, the brownies were going to be cut up anyways so a heart-shaped pan worked just fine.

This recipe is from Joy the Baker's second cookbook, Homemade Decadence. I happened to have all the ingredients except for chocolate chips so I skipped those. Otherwise, I relished the fact that my kitchen is officially stocked with all the requirements for baked goods on a whim. It even looks like butter has been conquered!!

As always, the sugar and butter are creamed together in one bowl. The eggs are then added to this mixture. The recipe calls for two large eggs but I had mixed size British eggs. One of them had two yolks so I decided it was alright to just use two and also good luck?

In a separate bowl, the dry ingredients are mixed together. I still don't own a whisk so I used a fork to incorporate all that cocoa powder. Slowly, the dry ingredients are added to the wet and stirred well. The batter should be nice and glossy, no flour streaks!

The batter is then spooned into the greased pan, whether it's a heart or a square, and baked until chocolatey and delicious. Although I didn't add chocolate chips, the brownies were still nice and fudgy. So think of good things, good vibes while making these brownies so they'll taste extra good.

Recipe

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease a 9-inch round pie dish or a square or a heart. Set aside.
2. Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt in a small bowl.
3. In medium bowl, whisk together the sugar, melted butter, eggs and vanilla.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, folding until combined. You can also add chocolate chips or nuts at this point, folding in to combine.
5. Pour the batter into the baking dish and bake for 20-25 minutes until cooked through.
6. Allow to cool before removing from pan (or serve from pan). Serve with ice cream or whipped cream for extra love! 

Squidgy Chocolate Torte

Remember all the struggles with metric conversions in baking? Well, no more! Bring on the grams of butter, we're making chocolate cake. A friend convinced me to sign up for a 10k shortly after moving to London, with the intention that signing up for a race would inspire us to run in preparation. It didn't but we still crushed it! It was a challenge for sure but I was proud of us for getting out there and being able to just decide to run a 10k.

The run was through a park that doubled as a deer preserve. People here are very excited to see deer but coming from Pennsylvania, back in the day, deer are no big deal. But this was a legit herd of deer just chilling in the middle of the park and when they started to run, it was almost like a safari.

To balance that out, we made chocolate cake. My friend was hosting a lunch the next day so we were looking for something chocolatey with berries and potentially whipped cream. This was the simpler of the recipes we found so we headed out to Waitrose and picked up our ingredients.

Unlike when I attempted snickerdoodles and divvying up a recipe, we made this cake in harmony. Butter and chocolate are melted together and I must say, one of the most satisfying baking experiences. Eggs and sugar are whisked together (we didn't have an electric mixer) with this nifty whisk. I recently read all about different whisks but this was a new one and quite fun.

Chocolate and butter go into eggs and sugar. Flour is folded in until we get a glossy, shiny batter. The batter is then poured into a torte pan. You could also use a spring-form pan or cake pan in a pinch. This torte will rise a little bit but not as much as a regular cake. It's dense and fudgy. Squidgy, I dare say.

Once cooled, we garnished with cocoa powder, blueberries and mint. Served with whipped cream, I'm sure it was the star of the lunch! I wasn't in attendance but I still enjoyed baking and running, detox to retox, people.

Recipe

• 200g unsalted butter
• 200g dark chocolate (70% cocoa), chopped/broken
• 4 large eggs
• 200g golden caster sugar
• 50g plain flour
• 50g ground almonds
• Pinch of salt
• Cocoa powder for dusting
• Berries for decorating

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Butter or grease your pan liberally.
2. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter and chocolate. Once smooth, remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.
3. Mix together the sugar and eggs using an electric mixer or a lot of whisking power. Blend until the mixture thickens, like custard.
4. Slowly pour the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture, stirring to combine.
5. Fold in the flour, almonds and pinch of salt until no white streaks remain.
6. Spoon the batter into the prepared tin.
7. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the center is cooked through.
8. Allow to cool completely before removing from the tin or decorating. 
9. Serve with whipped cream or plain!