Peanut Butter Swiss Roll
Sometimes, when I don’t have the time or mood to create anything new, I go back to old recipes and combine them differently, use other flavors, alter a few bits here and there and end up with a whole new recipe and dessert just using dessert components that I’ve used in the past. I strongly believe that this happens quite often in a pastry chef’s life though! Afterall, even working in a restaurant or pastry shop, you don’t get to create new desserts, cakes or entremets every single day. Not only that you would have a menu in both cases, but creating is a time-consuming process and it’s not as easy as it looks. Instead, you get to perfect old recipes and sometimes reinterpret them. So the moment you reach a point where you have a few recipes that you master well and know a few techniques to perfection, you can consider yourself one quarter of the way there already. The rest is hard work, passion, a touch of talent and maybe a bit of luck.
This is what happened with this peanut butter Swiss roll. I wanted something sweet so I sat and thought about my old recipes and came up with this combination. Who doesn’t like peanut butter after all?! And chocolate?!! It’s a rich, filling dessert, rather earthy so I think it is quite nice for this time of the year. You’ve seen the component of this dessert on my blog though before though. The sponge is a basic chocolate genoise, the filling is a peanut butter mousse and the glaze is a ganache enriched with butter. Simple as that, but delicious and easy to make!
Peanut Butter Swiss Roll
Ingredients
Genoise:
- 4 eggs
- 85 g white sugar
- 85 g all-purpose flour
- 1 pinch salt
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 30 g cocoa powder
- 20 g butter (melted and chilled)
Peanut butter mousse:
- 200 g cream cheese
- 150 g peanut butter
- 100 g powdered sugar
- 1 teapsoon vanilla extract
- 150 g heavy cream (whipped)
Dark chocolate ganache:
- 100 g dark chocolate (chopped)
- 100 ml heavy cream
- 30 g butter
Instructions
Genoise:
- Preheat your oven to 350F (180C) and line a large square pan with baking paper.
- Mix the whole eggs with sugar and whip up for 5-8 minutes until triple in volume.
- Sift the flour with salt, baking powder and cocoa powder in a bowl.
- Fold the flour into the whipped eggs using a spatula. Gradually add the flour and fold it in gently.
- Drizzle in the melted butter and mix just as gently.
- Spread the batter into the pan into a thin layer.
- Bake for 10-15 minutes until risen and set.
- Remove from the oven and let the sponge cool down.
Peanut butter mousse:
- Mix the cream cheese, peanut butter and sugar in a bowl.
- Stir in the vanilla then fold in the whipped cream.
- Spread 2/3 of the mousse over the sponge then roll it tightly into a Swiss roll.
- Refrigerate the roll for 30 minutes.
- Use the remaining mousse to cover the roll then place back in the fridge until the glaze is ready.
Ganache:
- Bring the heavy cream to the boiling point into a small saucepan.
- Remove from heat and stir in the chocolate.
- Mix until melted then add the butter.
- Allow the glaze to cool down. When the glaze has thickened slightly, pour it over the Swiss roll.
- Decorate with chocolate sprinkles if you wish.
- Serve the Swiss roll chilled.
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