This weekend I was kindly invited by The Bentalls Centre to have lunch at ‘Restaurant on 3’ with a guest in Kingston-Upon-Thames. So who better to take than my mum seeing as it was Mother’s Day.
After a couple of hours shopping (our favourite thing to do) we broke for lunch and were welcomed to our table. The restaurant has been designed to appeal to everyone, modern yet welcoming with a clean and spacious feeling and a child friendly area with plenty of room to play and a TV showing videos.
There was an array of food on offer, salads, deli sandwiches, pasta and pizza, soups and wonderful hot food including roasts with Yorkshires puddings and fish and chips!
My favourite section though was the deserts. Superb pastries and cakes, twists, croissants, Danish pastries along with rocky road, lemon and raspberry cake slice and the most delicious chocolate swiss roll. See below.
I’ve recreated their beautiful light swiss roll here with a forever baking twist…
My swiss roll creation is a decadent chocolate sponge layered with a light whipped cream filling, salted caramel sauce and crunchy praline. Topped off with a drizzle of bittersweet dark chocolate.
- 6 large free-range eggs, separated
- 125g caster sugar
- 50g cocoa powder, sifted
- 100g blanched hazelnuts
- 200g caster sugar
- ¼tsp fine sea salt
- 200g dulce de leche
- ½tsp sea salt fakes, ground in a pestle and mortar
- 350ml double cream
- 30g dark chocolate
- 1tbsp cocoa powder, sifted
- Heat the oven to 180C. In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar until pale and thick, then gently fold in the cocoa powder. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff. Fold a third of the egg whites into the cocoa mix until combined, then gently fold in the remainder. Pour into the prepared tin, tip the tin to spread the mixture to all sides and level the top. Bake for 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, make the praline: Spread 75g of the nuts over the oiled baking sheet. Put the sugar in a heavy-based pan and heat gently to dissolve. Don’t stir, but keep shaking the pan to ensure the heat is evenly distributed. Turn up the heat and bubble until the sugar is the colour of amber, then carefully pour it on top of the nuts and set aside to cool. Break up the cooled praline, place in a food processor and whizz until fine. Add the salt.
- Once it’s ready, leave the sponge to cool in the tin for a few minutes. Lay a clean sheet of baking parchment on the work surface and dust lightly with sifted cocoa powder. Turn the sponge out on to the dusted baking parchment then gently peel of the baking parchment from the top. Leave to cool for a further 5-10 minutes, then roll from shortest end to shortest end, using the new baking parchment to help you. Set aside to cool completely.
- For the filling, mix the dulce de leche with the sea salt; set aside. In a separate bowl, whip the cream with the cocoa powder to soft peaks; set aside. Roughly chop the remaining hazelnuts and set aside.
- Unroll the sponge then, using a palette knife, spread with a layer of the cream, reserving about half to the cover the outside.
- Drizzle over the dulce de leche then sprinkle over 2-3tbsp of the ground praline and half the reserved chopped nuts.
- Roll up again using the parchment to help then remove to a serving plate. Using a palette knife, cover the roulade with the remaining cream, then drizzle over the melted chocolate and sprinkle over the remaining chopped hazelnuts and another tbsp of the ground praline.
- You can cover the roulade with the cream up to 24 hours ahead, but add the caramel and praline just before serving. Any leftover praline will keep in a cool spot (not the fridge) in a sealed container for 3 days. It will keep longer if you only add the sea salt before serving.
