Mascarpone cream roulade

egg whites whipped firm

Well, today here in Kansas City it's our warmest day of the year .... so far.   Upper 80s, but to be honest we've had so few days in the 80s this spring that I'm not at all worried about a spring build-up of heat that often presages a monstrously hot and humid summer.

I woke up this morning set to make double batches of roulade.  What is roulade?  It's a rolled sponge cake that is filled with a wonderfully creamy center.  This center is made of cream, mascarpone and berries.  Mascarpone is an Italian cream cheese that is something often found in my fridge.

This recipe starts off with six eggs separated, and the egg whites are whipped, with sugar, into meringue until quite firm.

lightening egg yolks with meringue

The six eggs yolks are whisked for a minute or so before a portion of the meringue is added and combined to lighten up the yolks.  This is in order to be able to more easily fold all the ingredients together.

folding meringue, yolks, flour and corn starch

Then the lightened yolks are added to the bowl containing the remainder of the meringue, and flour and cornstarch (which have been whisked together) are added on top.  Then everything is folded together, not stirred, not mixed, but folded, until all the dry ingredients are incorporated.  The batter should still be little light from all the air whipped into the egg whites.

All of this is poured into a rimmed baking sheet, 12x17 inches, although it can also be done on a rimless baking sheet since the batter does not spread but holds its shape once spread by hand.

roulade sponge fresh from the oven

After 9 minutes or so at 400 degrees, the sponge is cooked.  As soon as the pan is removed from the oven, I immediately run a dinner knife around the edge to release it from the pan.  I'm not concerned about the bottom because the pan was lined with parchment paper cut to size before the batter was added.

removing parchment paper

I place a lint-free flour-sack-cloth towel over the pan with the sponge and carefully invert it and remove the pan.  Then I peel away the parchment paper, and the sponge, still quite warm, is immediately rolled up in the towel and left to cool to room temperature.  

sponge cake cooled and unrolled

After it cools, the sponge is still malleable.  It can be rolled and unrolled without any concerns of breakage.  

blueberries soaking in 200 degree sugar water

Now on to the filling.   Two cups of water and a cup of sugar are placed in a saucepan and brought to a boil.  Immediately, a pint of blueberries (not wild blueberries) are added to the hot water and the pan is removed from the stove.  I always do this in a smaller rather than larger stainless steel saucepan because I find the heat retention is better with this size of pan and with this material (stainless steel) than with other pans in my kitchen,  The water seems to stay hotter for a longer time in this pan after removal from the stove.  While it drops down from boiling temperature, it stays above 200 degrees long enough to satisfy me.  Doing this ensures that the skins on the blueberries soften and cook just a tiny bit.  (This same technique is applied when cooking blueberries for baby-food.)  If raw blueberries are used, I find that the berries have a bit of "bite" to them, and, compared to the creamy filling and the soft sponge, they almost feel crunchy, which is not the right texture composite to have, in my opinion.  On the other hand, when I make this with raspberries, I do not cook them.  They go into the filling raw.  They are already soft and the fresh raspberry works very well with the other components of this dessert.

The blueberries in the hot water are left alone to cool to room temperature.  Before they go into the filling they have be drained and and then left to dry for a few minutes on paper towels or in a colander.  I like to dry them with paper towels under and over the berries, just letting them sit for a while without applying any pressure.  The berries will still be moist, but no longer dripping wet.

mascarpone, powdered sugar and vanilla being combined with whipped cream

Mascarpone, powdered sugar and vanilla extract are gently mixed together in a bowl.  Whipped cream is added in order to lighten the mixture and then more whipped cream is combined with the lightened mascarpone via folding.  Then the berries are added.

spreading the filling on the sponge cake

Now we're ready to fill the roulade.  Unroll the sponge cake, spread the filling over, and then re-roll the sponge cake along the long edge.

roulade ready for chilling and then cutting

The roulade is then wrapped up in plastic or in the towel before chlling for a couple hours in the fridge.  Some bakers like to dust the towel in powdered sugar when the roulade sponge comes out of the oven which adds a sweet outer dusting that moistens and sticks to the hot cake as it cools.  However, as you can see here in the photo, this roulade doesn't have any evidence of powdered sugar coating because I don't always do that. The sponge cake is only lightly sweet, and I usually like to keep it that way.  Once in a while, though, I will roll up the roulade to cool in a powdererd-sugar-dusted towel, and then it looks just a bit different than it does in this photo.

three 5-inch portions from one long roulade

After chilling, a bit of each end (1/4 inch maybe) is cut off to give a clean appearance (and I always eat those scraps, of course!).   Then I cut each long roulade into three 5-inch portions to give out to people.  But I could just as easily keep it one long roulade if it's staying at home with me or if I want to take it as a single long cake to a dinner event or party.

So there you go.  It may sound complicated and involved, but it's really not a difficult dessert to make, and just about every aspect of it is very forgiving and mistakes don't usually become an issue.  

And, most importantly, it tastes amazing!