Chocolate Swiss Roll (New Method)

Hi all, hope everyone had a nice, relaxing weekend. :) Anyway, over the weekend, I managed to meet up some of my Junior College friends. Boy was it good to see them again. :) Although we rarely meet up, probably once or twice a year. But every time we see each other, it feels like we just met a couple weeks back. We don't blame each other for not being able to meet up more often or making that extra phone call. Its just a magical mutual understanding between us friends that we know we are all leading a busy life and know how it is. Even though we haven't spoken for months, there was never any awkward moments when we talk. Its just so natural and nice feeling. Guess good friends never fails huh? Anyway, to give my old friends a small treat, I decided to make a Chocolate Swiss Roll Cake for everyone to enjoy.

I know, not another chocolate Swiss roll! As mentioned in my previous post, I wanted to show everyone this new method of making a sponge cake which was taught in the 孟老师的美味蛋糕卷 cookbook. This method is also called the "分蛋式海绵蛋". I wouldn't have think much about it until Grace from Kitchen Corner mentioned to me that this method yields the softest and best sponge cake. I trust her of course and tried it. True enough, it is soft and it doesn't deflate so much like the chiffon method. Now I am only wondering would Rose's sponge cake method be any better then this? I guess I just have to try both recipes a couple more times to REALLY finalize on the "superior" one! But trust me, both recipes are good. :)

Recipe for Chocolate Swiss Roll (modified to suit my tray size)
Set A:
37g unsalted butter
120g egg yolk (about 7)
37g caster sugar
30g unsweetened cocoa powder
30ml ice water

Set B:
180g egg white
90g caster sugar

34g Cake flour
34g plain flour

Filling:
120ml fresh whipping cream, whipped
80g semisweet chocolate, melted (must be slight warm when used)
~6 to 8 fresh strawberries

Method:

• Melt the butter from Set A under double boiler and let cool until needed.

• Line a baking tray with parchment paper and greased it again. Preheat oven to 170C.
• Picture 1: Again under double boiler, beat the egg yolks and sugar (from Set A) till triple in volume and thickens as shown in Picture 2.
• Picture 3: Sift the cocoa powder into the thicken egg yolk mixture and mix gently, making sure it is not deflated. Then add in the ice water and stir in gently till combined.
• At the meantime, beat the egg white with gradual addition of the sugar in Set B and beat till mixture is stiff peaks.
• Picture 4: In 3 separate portions, add the egg whites into the yolk mixture, folding gently till all is added in.
• Picture 5: Sift in the flours in 3 separate portions as well, using the electric mixer at its lowest speed. Do this till there is no visible lumps of flour and making sure not over beating and deflating the mixture.
• Take about 2 tbsp worth of the batter and mix into the melted, cooled butter. Make sure it is well mixed and then add it back to the cake batter and gently stir to blend.
• Picture 7: Finally, pour the batter into the baking tray and level out with a scraper.
  

• Picture 8: Then bake in the oven for 12 minutes or till tester comes out clean.
• Add the warm chocolate to the whipped cream id desired to make chocolate cream and spread the filling evenly on the cake once it is completely cooled. Place the fresh strawberries at one end of the cake and roll it up from the end where the strawberries are and chill it for at least 30 minutes before slicing.

Hope my photos and steps will give you folks a better idea of this method. If it's not clear enough....feel free to drop me a comment if you have queries. :)

As you can see, my Swiss roll was a bit of a rough work. :P I was again rushing to finish it off in that 2 hours time frame (plus all that photo taking. :P) But coating the roll with chocolate rice was a great idea...some how it gives me a nostalgic feeling every time I have chocolate rice, lol! It reminds me of all those cakes from those traditional bakeries we used to eat during childhood. :)) So sharing this classic cake with my old friends was just perfect don't you think?

The sponge cake was soft with a nice "spring" to its texture. And furthermore, it rolls up very nicely with no cracks. So if you have problems with using chiffon method, why don't you give this method a try? You'll be pleasantly surprised. :)

Okay all, gotta run. Hope you have a good week ahead. Cheerio!!

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Bread Loaf

I love all things chocolate, no doubt about that. :) So if you adore chocolate like me, you have come to the right stop today. :) I have a chocolaty bread recipe to share with you folks, sure to satisfy any chocolate craving you have. Its been awhile since I last baked bread for the family, and what's better then to start it off with a Chocolate Chocolate Chip Loaf, yum! :)

I adapted this recipe from the latest bread recipe book I purchased, "Natural Breads Made Easy" (Chinese is "天然麵面包"). There is a Coffee Bread recipe which I modified it to Chocolate version instead. :) This is one of those that requires pre-fermented dough and leaving it to chill in the fridge up to 17 hours. Please refer to my previous Milk Tea Bread Loaf. :) Curious how good this Chocolate loaf is? Well, here is the modified recipe, try it out if you "dare", hahaha!

Ingredients for Chocolate Chocolate Chip Bread:
Pre-ferment Dough:
469g bread flour
268g water
13g fresh yeast (I used instant active yeast)
7g sea salt (I used table salt)
13g skim milk powder

Dissolve the yeast in water. Add bread flour, sea salt, skim milk powder and knead until soft. Cover the dough in cling wrap or a big zip log bag. Refrigerate to let it prove for 17 hours.

Note: The dough will expand in the fridge. So whatever container you put the dough in, do give some allowance for growth.

Main Dough:
201g bread flour
20g unsweetened cocoa powder
7g sea salt (I used table salt)
70g sugar
80g beaten egg
60ml fresh milk
60g quality milk chocolate melted and cooled
7g fresh yeast (I used instant active yeast)
66g unsalted butter, room temperature

Method:

• Knead all ingredients of the main dough together, except the butter. Add pre-ferment dough piece by piece. Knead after each addition until soft and smooth. Add butter. Knead until stretchable consistency.
  
• Put the dough into a big bowl. Cover with cling wrap and let it prove for 30minutes till double.
• Divide the dough into 6 equal portions. Flatten each portion with your hands to drive the air out. Roll it into square shape, cover and let rest for 20 minutes before shaping.
• Flatten the dough to drive the air out. Roll each out into a rectangular sheet with a rolling pin. Fold about 2cm from both sides towards the center and roll it out again. Roll the dough up like swiss roll (the width should be the same as the tin) and out them into the mould. Repeat for the rest of the dough portions. Cover with cling wrap.
  
• Let it prove for about 45 minutes or until the dough has risen to 80 to 90% of the depth of the loaf tin. You can either cover the lid or bake it open top like mine. If open top, brush with egg wash. Bake in 175C for 30 to 35minutes.

I have actually separate the dough recipe into 2 loaves to bake on separate days. The first loaf was done the very next day after the pre-fermented dough was chilled for 17 hours. While the other portion was used 4 days later...still good! So no worries if you got a little busy and can't make the bread the very next day, the dough will still bake out nicely. :) Cool huh!

The loaf turned out great, easy to knead and also rises pretty fast too. The only mistake I made was to add chocolate chips. :P Why? Because when I slice the loaf, the chocolate get all gooey and stuck onto the knife...not clean cut if you know what I mean.

Once again this method has yield a really soft, tasty and slightly "bouncy" (the Chinese would describe it as Q-Q, heehee) loaf. If you have tasted this, its really hard to go back to those off the shelf store-bought loaves. :P And when it was fresh out of the oven, my little one was really eager to taste it and kept on hurrying me to finish the photo shots, lol! She gobbled up one and half slice!s Yes, she's a choco-lover like me. :D

Okay, hope you folks will try this out and have fun baking it! Have a great week ahead!