Saturday, December 7, 2013

Kerala Jam Roll / Swiss Rolls

Certain images get etched in your mind forever! One such is the sight of pretty jam rolls sitting happily in the bakery shelves in Kerala. We got to eat these only on special occasions like birthdays or other celebrations. Just the sight of it is enough to make us drool. They are amazingly soft and sweet pieces of cake rolled in with the goodness of jam.

I have never seen them in bakeries in Dubai. So thought of making them at home to give an opportunity to my kids to enjoy what their parents devoured as kids!!



Ingredients

All purpose flour - 100g
Castor sugar - 100g
Eggs - 4

Mixed Fruit jam (warm - I used Kissan) - 6 tbsp



Method

Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees. Put the eggs and sugar in a deep bowl and beat on high using a hand-mixer. Keep beating till you get a rich creamy mousse like consistency. It will take about 10 minutes to reach this stage. By now, the quantity would have almost tripled. Now slowly sieve the flour into the egg-sugar mixture. Combine using cutting action, not allowing any air to escape (you need that air for the fluffy rolls). It will take some time to combine everything, don't hurry!

Lightly grease a 9 X 12'' tray and line it with baking sheet. Carefully transfer the mixture to the tray and place it in the oven. Check after 10 - 12 minutes, it should be done.

Warm the jam and keep it aside.

Take the tray out of the oven. Place a baking sheet on the flat surface and slightly dust it with flour or icing sugar (I missed this and my cake slightly broke while rolling as it got stuck to the sheet!). Now slowly turn the cake from the tin onto this prepared sheet. Spread the warm jam on the top of it. Start rolling the sponge from the short side, till you reach other end (need to be done slowly and carefully). When you reach the end, hold it in position for approx 1 min. Remove the crusty edges. Cut into thin slices and enjoy!

Lessons Learnt!!

1. You have to be really fast while making the sponge. So make sure all ingredients are measured and kept ready for use before you start. The air that is built up in the egg-sugar mixture while beating (for 10 min) is what gives spongy texture to the roll. So if you take too much time after air is built up, there is a threat that you might lose all the air and the cake will end up hard.

2. I checked the cake after 10 min and the skewer came out clean, so took the cake out. But guess I should have waited for couple of minutes more so that the cake would have nicely browned and wouldn't have broken while rolling.

3. Unfortunately my baking sheet got over while I was about to bake and was forced to use aluminium foil. But the cake stuck to it and was difficult to separate it. So please ensure you have enough baking sheet or parchment paper in hand!

4. If you don't flour the surface to which you overturn the sponge (after baking), there is a high probability that the cake will break while rolling.

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