It's fun when you can combine a things you really like to do into one project. The roulade from French Fridays with Dorie, fits the bill.
- Recipes that require careful technique and a few steps are more fun
- Birthdays should be celebrated for a week
- Mascarpone should be its own food group
- Roulade whether sweet of savory is kind of glamorous
When I saw Roulade in the recipe name, I knew this was going to be fun. A friend of ours was turning a "Zero" birthday, and I wanted an extra special birthday treat. We'd have a nice light and cool dessert to celebrate.
Simple, pretty and full of sweet blueberries. The preparation of the berries is wonderful. Bring sugar and water to a boil, add the berries and turn off the heat. The berries plump but won't burst. When they dry, they're sticking and sweet. You could almost spread them like jam. SO good!
The recipe isn't really hard, but careful attention is required to make sure your sponge cake is just right. Here's a photo of the eggs just before they're combined with the flourl
Here's the pretty sponge before baking...
And this is the after. Golden, tender and ready to be rolled.
It's never really made sense to me that you could roll a sheet of sponge cake in a towel. I had it all wrapped up and ready to cool, and realized that you really needed to see what this looks like. The towel is dusted with powdered sugar, the sponge cake goes straight on it while it's warm, then it's rolled up and cooled. The cake takes the shape so it will roll nicely when the filling is added.
Sorry I don't have a photo of the blueberries and cream on the sponge before I rolled it. I was a in the zone and forgot to grab the camera . Here's the finished dessert. If you don't have a copy of Around My French Table, by Dorie Greenspan, I highly recommend the book. It's full of great recipes with carefully written instructions.
