Now it's really Christmas! Chocolate log making and sherry - Recipe

I can't remember how many years ago I first started making chocolate log but it's become something of a tradition in our house, when the chocolate log making starts and I crack open the sherry then Christmas really begins!

This year my lovely friend Adam and my biggest chocolate log fan came round for a crash course and helped me out with my photos so don't be too confused if it looks like my hands have suddenly grown and I've developed a lot of arm hair!

I can't claim to have written the whole recipe from scratch but it's been such a long time since I noted it down in my book that I can't credit the original and I've make some tweaks along the way. The credit for the idea of decorating with chocolate flakes goes to my wonderful Great Auntie Jane who always used to make a fatastic chocolate log when I was growing up.

There is a lot of whisking involved in making the sponge.  It can be done by hand but be prepared for some hard work and a very tired arm, the first year I made it I didn't have an electric mixer and man was it hard work but it still turned out really well so don't let the lack of gadgetry put you off.  Alternatively you could perhaps look at borrowing a mixer, it doesn't have to be a stand mixer, just a hand held electric whisk will do the job.

Ingredients and Equipment 

 

For the sponge:
Butter - for greasing
5 large eggs - at room temperature
140g light muscavado sugar
100g self-raising flour
25g Cocoa powder
Castor sugar for dusting

For the Icing and Decoration: 
75g dark chocolate
150g unsalted butter - at room temperature
300g icing sugar
1tsp vanilla extract
Milk - to loosen
9 Chocolate Flakes (It might be worth having a few extra spare if you're making this for the first time)

Baking tin - see notes below 
Baking parchment - enough to line base and sides of the tin plus 2 extra sheets slightly larger than the size of the tin 
Whisk - preferably electric although it is possible to make by hand if you're willing to put in the work.

If I was following strict advice I'd tell you that you need a special 'swiss roll tin' - one that has sharp corners and is completely flat like this one, approximately 38cm by 28cm and 3cm deep. When I first made chocolate log however I didn't really think about what tin I needed, I brought the ingredients, was all ready to go and then realised I didn't have this type of tin so I just used the one I had which I still have and it looks like this. It has dipped edges and quite rounded corners so doesn't seem ideal but it's now become my 'old faithful' when it comes to chocolate log making and it's never failed me yet (I let Adam use it for his first Chocolate log making!)  So if you don't want to shell out for a new tin you might be able to get away with it, just make sure it's at least 2.5cm deep as the mix rises quite a lot.  The 2 tins we used were 26cm by 33cm and 29cm by 40cm so something in that region should do you nicely.

 

Making the Sponge

 

Top Tip:  The key to getting a good Swiss Roll sponge is getting lots of air into the mix and keeping it there so the eggs needs to be well whisked, the dry ingredients sieved and everything folded together with a light touch.

1. Preheat the oven to 190c (170c fan)
2. Grease and line the tin with baking parchment as follows:
. Grease the tin with butter 
. Cut a piece of baking parchment big enough to cover the bottom and sides of the tin with a little to spare. 
. Push down in the middle, it will stick to the butter to hold it in place.  
.Cut a diagonal slit in the corner of the parchment (see picture) long enough to allow you push the parchment down into the corner of the tin overlapping the 2 flaps of parchment.
. Trim off the excess and use a little butter to secure the parchment in place at the corner and get an even finish.  
. Repeat these steps for every corner. 
. You can now trim the excess parchment from around the top of the tin to neaten it up a little but personally I don't bother!

3. Seperate the eggs. Putting the yokes into the largest bowl you will be using (to make for easy whisking) or if using a stand mixer the bowl for this
Tips:  Lots of people seem to have very complicated methods for separating eggs using glasses, plastic bottles and all sorts.  I find the simple method of cracking the egg and passing the yoke back and forward between the 2 halves of the shell while the white drains out works perfectly well.  I would advise doing this over a mug one at a time them once you're sure there's no yolk in it add it to the rest of the whites. In this way if you get any yolk in it you only waste a single egg and don't have to throw away all you egg whites.  If you get any yolk in the whites I'm afraid you have to throw it away and start again but  a little bit of white in the yolks won't do any harm.

4. Add the muscavado sugar and 2 tablespoons of water to the egg yolks and whisk for approximately 5 minutes. When ready the mixture should be light in colour and leave a trail when the whisk is lifted out - see picture.
(It will be hard to believe it will ever turn this colour when you first start whisking as it starts of quite a dark mixture)

If you're using and stand mixer and have only one bowl at this point you will need to transfer the mixture to a different bowl at this point and wash up the mixer as you'll need it soon to whisk the egg whites.

5. Sift the flour and cocoa together and lightly fold them into the egg yolk mixture. It's important to do this gently to preserve as much air as possible.

 6. Set aside the mixture and whisk the egg whites on their own until they are stiff. 

7. Adding a 3rd of the egg whites at a time fold them gently into the rest of the mixture preserving as much air as possible.
   

.

8. Pour the mixture evenly into the prepared cake tin.  Bake for 10 minutes - when baked the cake should feel firm and spongy, if it's not yet firm pop the cake back in the oven for another minute but keep a close eye on it as if it's over baked and starting to dry out it will be more likely to crack when rolled up. 

NB: Don't sit back and relax, you need to be working on step 9 while the sponge is in the oven so you're ready to roll it up as soon as possible once it's out. Read ahead so that you have all the bits for the next few steps ready. 

9. Cut 2 pieces of baking parchment just longer than the length of the baking tin. Lay 1 of these out on the work surface and sprinkle with castor sugar. When the sponge is baked turn it straight out onto the baking parchment, this feels a bit scary to do but it holds together very well.

 10. Approximately 1 inch from one end score into the sponge approximately half of it's depth, this helps with rolling up.  

 11. Fold the excess baking parchment under and place the second piece on top. Starting from the scored end roll the sponge and paper up; roll up so that it is snug but not tight enough to squash the sponge. Place on a cooling rack and stage one is done.












Now is the time to sit down and relax for a little while and let the sponge cool, or in my case dash round tidying up and sorting out the icing ingredients while Adam entertained the baby, feed the baby and put her down for a nap.  Now the fun part really begins...

Icing and Decorating

 

1. Melt the chocolate; Place the chocolate in a bowl over a pan over simmering water making sure that the bowl doesn't touch the water and stir intermitently until completely disolved.

2. Cream the butter, icing sugar and vanilla extract until light and creamy, once again this is much easier if you have an electric mixer but if not use a wooden spoon.

 3. Add the chocolate and beat until combined, the mixture should be loose enough to spread without damaging the sponge, if it's a bit thick loosen with a tablespoon full of milk, if still too thick add a little more milk until the mixture spreads easily. 

 4. Gently remove the baking paper from the sponge, you won't be able to completely unroll the sponge as it will crack so just gently ease the paper out.

5. Now for the nerve racking bit, it's time to unroll the sponge. As I said above you won't be able to just unroll it flat, just enough to get the icing in.  I find it really helpful to use a rolled up tee towel to support the end of the sponge so that I have both hands free. If it does crack don't panic, at the end of the day you're going to cover it completely in icing so it won't notice but it is very satisfying to manage it without it cracking.

 6. Carefully cover the whole of the inside surface with icing.  I tend to go for a fairly thin layer approximately 3mm thick as I find otherwise the cake is too sickly but it's really up to you if you want a bit more icing but you need to leave enough to cover the outside. 



7. Once filled with icing roll the sponge back up. You now want to transfer it onto whichever plate you wish to serve it on as it's harder to move once it's iced and decorated.

8. You will need approximately 8 chocolate flakes. If it's your first time making this however you might want to have a few spares in reserve as they tend to crumble when you cut them so you might get through more until you've had a bit of practice.  Aim to have long, thin pieces and you can fill in the gaps with smaller pieces that break off.  It doesn't matter about the length as crossing them over will help give a more seamless finish. 

9. The end of the log will look rounded and messy, gently cut the end off to neaten it up.

The best thing about trimming the ends is you have a little something to nibble on with a cheeky glass of sherry while you finish off the decorating.

 Anyway, back to work...

 10. Ice the top of the log and cover with overlapping pieces of Flake. Once you've done the middle add more icing to the sides and continue until the whole log is covered.

11. When you've finished it will look a little messy, use some kitchen roll to clean the plate of all the chocolate crumbs. You'll find you have quite a lot of crumbly bits of chocolate left over, you can keep this to sprinkle on hot chocolate or alternatively do what I did and eat it with a spoon!

12. Using a sieve sprinkle the top with a little icing sugar for effect. 
Tip: Don't put the icing sugar in the sieve while it's over the cake as you'll get a lot go through all at once, put it in while the sieve is to one side then gently sprinkle over. 











 
And you're done! As you can see I have to confess that despite having made this many times Adam's turned out to have a better spiral than mine, I wasn't too jealous honest! It shows that a slight differnce to the size of the tin affects the outcome but it still works (Adam's tin was larger so the sponge was thinner) .  Sometimes I add icing to cover the ends but from my experience this just leads to arguments on who gets the end piece so it might be safer not to.

Merry Christmas

If you have a go I'd love to hear your comments on how you got on.

Alanna