I have always been a huge fan of Jacques Pepin and Julia Child, so it was no great surprise that I loved to watch their cooking show together which aired on PBS. I remember watching the episode where they made this particular chocolate roulade, and made a mental to try it. If you have never seen that episode, you can click here to see them both making it again with Martha Stewart.
The day I saw it made on the show, I remember everyone saying how light and airy it was — it was totally flourless and made only with egg whites, chocolate and heavy cream.
Years went by, and I had never tried the recipe. Occasionally, I would come across the recipe on the WEB when doing research for other things, and read reviews from others who had tried making it. The major complaint was that it would crack when rolled, and that it was too hard to handle.
I decided that it was time to try the recipe.
It’s always a little nerve wracking when you try a recipe that was created by other people, and it’s even more challenging when those other people are Jacques Pepin and Julia Child. I admire both of them immensely because of their many contributions to the cooking world. I experienced the same feeling a few years ago when I decided it was time to update Julia’s chocolate mousse recipe – but, with the changing world we live in and the ever growing risk of food borne illnesses, I am sure that in this case, she would not have minded at all.
Sometimes it is hard for me to follow a recipe as it is written. I have been baking for so many years and instinctively I want to add other ingredients or use a different procedure. When I decided to undertake this project, I decided that the goal here was to repeat the recipe as stated, to see if in fact these complaints were valid and if there was any way of making it better without compromising the final result.
Because this is a totally flourless product, there are a few things to keep in mind. The main goal is to get the most volume and stability out of the egg whites because they are the base that carries all of the other ingredients. You can achieve this in a couple of different ways — First, when using fresh egg whites, it’s important to add salt, and I believe that they did that in the recipe. Another is the addition of cream of tartar (an acid) and the third is using enough sugar to create smooth, soft peaks (not brittle) and a gloss that tells you there is enough sugar in the recipe. In the original recipe, cream of tartar was not used and the beaten egg whites were slightly brittle and not glossy. So, when you added the cooled ganache, it thinned out the brittle egg whites fairly quickly. The resulting batter was a very thin and when it baked, it was fragile and sticky. This made it very difficult to handle as expressed by the people who had tried the recipe. To add insult to injury, the whipped cream filling really did not add any structure to the chilled cake, making it difficult to handle. I discovered that using some European buttercream as the filling instead, helped the handling of the product once it had chilled.
After making the original recipe, the final result cracked slightly as it was rolled and was a little challenging to handle. The texture was definitely light and fluffy, and more like a light chocolate soufflé in a roulade shape and not a traditional cake type of roulade.
I wanted to make a few changes to see if it would help with the handling of the roulade without adversely affecting the lovely airy texture. The changes I made were as follows:
– I added some cream of tartar to increase the volume I needed for a sturdy base
– I added extra sugar to get the whites to that important sturdy soft peak that is also glossy
– I added just a little cocoa powder because cocoa powder behaves like flour without changing the integrity of the cake as a flourless composition. The most important thing to remember when adding cocoa powder to egg whites is that you should not add one with a very high butterfat content, or it will weigh down the egg whites. Hershey’s is one that is readily available for consumers and has good flavor and low fat content.
With a few tweaks, the result was an improved flourless roulade that still resembled the original in texture, but not as brittle and much easier to handle. Now everyone can enjoy it as it was originally intended.
Jacques & Julia’s Original Chocolate Roulade
7 egg whites
pinch of salt
3 ½ tablespoons sugar
1 cup heavy cream
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon cognac
1 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon cocoa powder for garnish
First take 1 cup of heavy cream and the 8 ounces of chocolate and melt them together to make a ganache, and allow to cool completely.
Next, beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt, and once they begin to take on a little volume, slowly add the sugar until the eggs are as fluffy as possible. Unfortunately, this amount of sugar did not give you soft, smooth peaks or a glossy sheen. The whites were still on the dry side, so in my revamped recipe (below), I increased the amount of sugar.
I continued on with the recipe, and added the cooled chocolate to the whites. After mixing the ganache into the whites, it really thinned out the mixture a lot. This is what I got…
You can see in the video link above that Jacques got the same result. It was easy to just pour this into your half sheet pan because it was so thin.
After baking for about 10 minutes, the roulade was soft, thin and sticky to the touch. I allowed it to cool completely and then filled it with a European buttercream instead of the whipped cream suggested in the recipe. The noticed that the buttercream added extra body to the delicate roulade once it had chilled and was a much better alternative to the whipped cream. I rolled it up and got a little bit of cracking.
I chilled it in the refrigerator and it remained very sticky and a bit of a challenge to slice because it stuck to everything. The texture was really lovely — so light and fluffy, and very much like a soufflé — which is why I call this a soufflé roulade, and very different from a traditional cake roulade.
For all of my changes to the recipe, see below…
Jacques & Julia’s Revamped Chocolate Souffle Roulade
7 egg whites
pinch of salt
3/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
8 tablespoons sugar
1 cup heavy cream
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate
2 tablespoons cocoa powder, sifted into egg whites
1 recipe Italian buttercream (flavor with whatever you prefer vanilla, cognac, melted chocolate, etc)
First take 1 cup of heavy cream and the 8 ounces of chocolate and melt them together to make a ganache, and allow to cool completely. Next, beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt. Allow this to start frothing and then add the cream of tartar. Once the egg whites begin to take on a little volume, slowly add the 8 tablespoons of sugar until you have achieved smooth, soft peaks that are also slightly glossy.
Once the egg whites are ready, pour in the cooled ganache and the sifted cocoa powder, then fold everything together. This is what you get with the revamped version, a big difference…
Use an offset spatula to spread it out onto your parchment lined half sheet pan that has also been gently greased on the sides. Bake until completely set about 10-12 minutes.
After baking, this will not be sticky, but once it comes out of the oven and cools, it will become slightly sticky. Because it is still flourless, this was something that was inherent to this type of texture. The handling of the item was much better. It was slightly thicker and seemed more durable, although it was still delicate in texture. Because the original recipe called for bittersweet chocolate, the addition of the extra sugar did not make this too sweet – it actually worked out well.
I made the Italian buttercream and set it aside until the cake had cooled. I spread a thin layer of the buttercream onto the cake that I left in the sheet pan, and I began to roll.
I noticed that it was still delicate but not as fragile as before. I used the parchment paper that was baked with the cake (under the roulade) to help roll up the cake. As I rolled it, I pulled it closer to me in the pan and then put another piece of clean parchment on the opposite side of the pan. Once I got to the end of the cake, I just rolled the roulade onto the clean sheet of parchment. The best thing about the changes was that there was no cracking. The marks that you see are from the parchment paper.
The cake is also so much thicker because of the extra volume created in the egg whites…
I wrapped the roll and refrigerated it for a few hours. Once chilled, the buttercream firmed up and the cake was much easier to move onto a platter. The recipe was definitely worth revamping – just remember that it’s important to keep it refrigerated but it can make a beautiful individually sliced dessert or a centerpiece to any dessert table. Slicing was also much easier and service was a breeze.
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