Fatless Swiss Roll

Basically a fatless sponge, this swiss roll is made by rolling warm sponge around fresh jam. The key is in how you roll it.

This Birthday season in our house goes on for months and months!  The lucky recipients of cake this week are on a fatfree diet. Back in early June I blogged my family recipe for fatless sponge and at that time I mentioned that you could roll a tray bake of the sponge recipe to make a swiss roll.  Which is exactly what I did this week using one of my favourite raspberry jams.

A number of family members are now on special diets and this is the perfect, low in fat option for a sweet treat.  Like with all fatless sponges it is best eaten the day it is baked however it will keep for a further day but may turn slightly chewy.

To recap on the original recipe as the ingredients and method are nearly identical:

Ingredients

• 3 medium eggs
• 3 oz of plain flour
• 3 oz of caster sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon of baking powder

To decorate

• 150ml jam or curd
• 50g caster sugar

Equipment

• Stand mixer or hand whisk (you can do this by hand but it’s seriously hard & time consuming)
• 1 large metal spoon
• 1 rectangular cookie tray with a 2cm lip
• Greaseproof baking parchment
• Sieve
• Damp teatowel

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 170 degrees celcius.
2. Line your tin with baking parchment, ensuring that there is plenty of overlap.
3. Sprinkle this baking parchment with a small amount of plain flour (this will make it easier to lift off the parchment while the sponge is warm for rolling.
4. Take another large piece of baking parchment & place the sieve on top of it. Put the flour & baking powder inside the sieve & leave it for the time being.
5. Put the eggs and sugar into the mixer and using the whisk attachment whisk until pale, light and fluffy. Its volume should at least double in size.
6. Turn off the mixer and sieve the flour/baking powder directly onto the baking parchment.
7. Now gently pour half the flour into the egg/sugar mixture and fold with the metal spoon. Taking care not to knock the air out.
8. Repeat step 6 above with the remaining flour.
9. Pour the mixture into the lined baking tray.
10. Bake in the oven for approximately 22 mins or until golden.
11. Remove from the oven when baked and leave to cool for 5 mins on a cooling rack.
12. Tip the tray upside down onto the cooling rack and remove the tray from the now upturned sponge.
13. Next peel off the baking parchment gently. Place dirty side facing downwards on top of the damp teatowel.
14. Sprinkle the clean side of the baking parchment with caster sugar and tip the sponge gently on top of this caster sugar so that it sits squarely in the middle of the towel/parchment combination.
15. Taking the short edge of the towel and the edge of the baking parchment together in your hands, tightly roll together until you reach the short edge of the sponge.
16. Spread the jam liberally all over the sponge while it is still warm.
17. Next take the short edge of the sponge and twist it so that it has rolled onto itself. Note the sponge should be warm but not hot to touch at this stage.
18. This part is not unlike rolling sushi.  Use the teatowel/parchment to force the sponge to roll onto itself tightly.
19. Keep on rolling until you reach the end of the sponge.
20. Now cover the sponge with the parchment, then the damp teatowel and twist like a Christmas Cracker.
21. Leave the roll to cool for approximately 15 mins before serving.