Chocolate Roulade

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my Christmas cake

I got this recipe from a friend in Hong Kong, Chris Duggan. Her family went to our church, St. Andrews, and we went to a Bible study at their house. Brian, her husband, was an engineering professor at the University of Hong Kong. They were from Birmingham England. She is an excellent British cook. This recipe is not like any other chocolate roulade I've seen. I've made it as our buche to Noel for years. I once made one five feet long for a co-workers 50th birthday, which of course is nothing compared to the one pictured below.
Cake:
6 eggs, separated
1/4 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup sugar
2 ounces cocoa

Filling:
4 ounces chocolate, like chocolate chips or bar
2 tablespoons liquid, like brandy

2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Find a jelly roll pan, they seem to come in all sizes.
Grease the pan a little, then put in a piece of parchment paper that comes up over the edges of the pan.
Grease the paper lightly.

Beat the egg yolks and the sugar and vanilla until very light yellow.
Add the vanilla and the cocoa. This will make a rather stiff mixture.
Beat egg whites until stiff, but not too stiff.
Dump the egg whites into the bowl with the yolks and fold the two together.

Spread the batter into the pan, and bake for about 20 minutes. Because pans differ, time differs.
Not long after taking the cake out of the oven, lift up the cake by the paper onto a cooling rack. When the cake is sufficiently cooled sprinkle granulated sugar onto the cake (not too much) and then place a tea towel over the cake and carefully flip the cake over. The gently peel off the parchment paper.  The cake can rest for a while like this.

Assembling the cake

Whip the cream and the sugar until nice and stiff, but not so stiff it's almost butter.
Put the chocolate and the liquid into a glass dish and put into the microwave for a little while, not long. You can sneak up on it.  Don't get the chocolate too hot as it can solidify. Stir up the chocolate mixture until smooth and using the back of the spoon, spread the melted chocolate over the cake.
Using a frosting spatula spread some, but not all, of the cream over the chocolate. Then, using the tea towel as a help, roll up the cake and carefully get it onto a platter.  Don't worry about any cracks, as the whipped cream will cover them.  Put on the rest of the cream. I like to reserve some of the cream so that I can pipe it on the cake, like around the ends and along the sides.

For a special decoration I like to add chocolate leaves on the top.  You melt up a handful of  chocolate chips with a dab of shortening.  Then get come camellia leaves, wash and dry them, and gently apply some chocolate to the bottom of the leaf, using the back of a small spoon.  Place the leaves on a small plate and put into the freezer for about 15 minutes.  Then carefully remove the leaves and place on the cake.  Be as artistic as you like.

Ginger Creams

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These are my family’s all time favorite Christmas cookie. It’s not really Christmas until we have made a batch of these. And then they eat them right away. Riley’s mother made them for him as a child. Annie thinks that this is the best cookie in the entire universe.

These cookies are very cake like, taste a lot like gingerbread.

1/3 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup water
2 cups unbleached flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 cup icing sugar
2-4 Tbls of softened butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 + tablespoons cream


Cream butter, white sugar.
Add egg, molasses, and water, mixing well.
Combine flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, baking soda, and spices and add in.
Chill dough until firm, about 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C).
Drop dough by teaspoonfuls about 2 inches apart on baking sheet.
Bake about 8 minutes, or until almost no imprint remains when touched lightly.
While slightly warm, frost with icing.

To Make Frosting: Beat together vigorously with an electric mixer the icing sugar and butter, until the sugar looks all yellow. Add the vanilla, and cream to make icing easy to spread. Spread on cookies when they have cooled. If the cookies are hot the frosting will slip off.
For Christmas, sprinkle with sprinkles, lot of them.

Zimtsterne

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I started making these cookies when I was in high school. They are very Christmassy and taste great. It’s not a make after school kind of cookie, but one does need the little bit fancy Christmas cookies. These are of course a German cookie, but this is Berry Crocker’s recipe, not a traditional German recipe.

3 tbsp butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 egg, separated
1 tsp lemon juice
2 1/3 cups unbleached flour
2 1/2 tps baking powder
1 1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cups finely chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Cream the butter, sugar, and 2 eggs and 1 egg yolk until fluffy
Combine the dry ingredients and add to mixture.
Stir in the chopped nuts.
Roll out batches of the dough (1/3 at a time) to 1/16 inch thick
on lightly floured board. But into stars. Place on cookie sheet
and brush with the egg white beaten frothy.
Bake for 5-8 minutes.