Chocolate and Hazelnut Roulade

Crowd-pleasing and indulgent!

Impress your family and friends with this sumptuous dessert. It’s flour-free, delicious, festive, and made completely from scratch. This rich chocolate and hazelnut roulade looks impressive but is surprisingly straightforward and guaranteed to leave everyone wanting more.

There are three components: the cake, the filling, and chocolate sauce. While it takes a little time, none of the steps are difficult.

And the best part? This version is made entirely in the Vibe Blender System. Yes, really, we beat egg whites to light, fluffy peaks and whip cream right in the stainless-steel jug. When one machine can handle this much, there’s hardly any need for a kitchen full of appliances.

The roulade features a decadent flourless chocolate sponge filled with a rich hazelnut mousse made from whipped cream and our famous homemade Nutella, that is a must-try blender treat.

Making a roulade (or Swiss roll) is far less complicated than it seems; the key is to stay gentle — gentle with the mixing, gentle with the baking, and most of all, gentle with the rolling. Don’t stress if it cracks or even splits. That’s completely normal and part of its rustic charm. A dusting of icing sugar or a drizzle of ganache and toasted nuts will make it look spectacular.

Even better, this dessert is made to be prepared ahead of time. Assemble the roulade several hours or the day before your guests arrive, then simply keep it chilled in the fridge until you’re ready to serve.

INGREDIENTS

Chocolate cake
1 cup / 175g good-quality dark chocolate, melted
6 eggs, yolk and white separated
1 cup / 175g coconut sugar (or regular sugar)

Hazelnut mousse filling
300g pure cream 
½ cup chocolate hazelnut spread (such as our homemade Nutella)
1 tablespoon of coconut sugar

Chocolate drizzle
Melted chocolate to drizzle (approx. ¼ cup of chocolate)
1 heaped teaspoon of chocolate hazelnut spread
Chopped roasted hazelnuts, for decorating

METHOD

Roulade:
1.   Preheat the oven to 160°C / 320°F. Line a Swiss roll tin with a sheet of baking paper. Make sure the Vibe Blender jug is thoroughly clean and dry.
2.   Melt the chocolate in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.
3.   Separate the eggs.
4.   Place the egg whites into the blender jug. Secure the lid on. Choose ‘smoothie’ mode, select the lowest speed setting and blend for 90 seconds or until the whites are stiff enough not to fall out if you turned the jug upside down. Scoop the whites into a large mixing bowl and set aside.
5.   No need to wash the jug. Move quickly to the next step because you don’t want the whites to deflate.

6.   Tip the yolks and sugar into the jug. Blend on ‘smoothie’ mode on medium speed for 30 seconds. Stop, open the lid and pour in the cooled melted chocolate. Blend for a further 10-20 seconds to combine.
7.   Pour the chocolate mixture to the side of the egg whites, in the same bowl but making sure not to pour onto the whites. Use a spatula to gently fold the chocolate into the egg whites. Do not over mix - you don’t want to push the air out of the whites.
8.   Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and gently spread to the edges.
9.   Bake for 10-12 minutes or until risen and springs back if you touch it. An over baked cake is more likely to crack as it rolls. Remove from the oven. The cake will deflate as it cools.
10.  Lay a clean tea-towel over the cake. Place a cake cooling rack (or chopping board) upside-down on-top of the tea-towel. Flip the tray and rack over so the cake tin is up-side down. Lift the tray off. Now, the cake should be sitting in the middle of the tea-towel. Peel the baking paper off the cake.
11.  While the cake is still warm, use both hands to loosely roll the cake up in the tea-towel. Leave for 15 minutes to cool, then gently unravel and left cool completely. The cake will have a memory when you re-roll it with the filling.
12.  While the cake is cooling, you can make the hazelnut filling.

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