Great British Bake Off 2018: What is a roulade? Here is a recipe (2024)

This week’s Great British Bake Off signature challenge will see the nine remaining bakers baking their own spin on the classic dessert roulade.

Many of us will have attempted the classic meringue-based pudding, but as the bakers will find out this dessert week, it is a tricky one to master.

In the lead-up to the next episode of GBBO airing tonight at 8pm on Channel 4, Express.co.uk spoke exclusively to Sainsbury’s development chef Tassy Goodall to get her guide to creating the perfect roulade.

She also provided us with a recipe so you can see if you can beat Bryony or match Manon with your own roulade.

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What is a roulade?

Technically a roulade actually refers to a number of dishes where meat, pastry, sponge or meringue are topped with a filling and rolled into a spiral.

However, the bakers will be making meringue-based roulades, filled with fresh whipped cream, fruit, or whatever other mad ingredients they have brought along to the Bake Off tent.

Although meringues only feature a minimum of two ingredients (egg whites and sugar), they are deceptively difficult.

Goodall told of of some of the problems bakers both on Bake Off and at home may have when making meringue.

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Roulades can be made out of cake, meat, pastry or meringue (Image: GETTY)

The bakers will need to be careful when separating their eggs and use squeaky clean bowls

Tassy Goodall, Sainsbury's development chef

“When it comes to making simple French meringue, the bakers will need to be careful when separating their eggs and use squeaky clean bowls, as any fat will stop the white from whipping up to the stiff peaks they’ll want for the perfect meringue.

“The contestants will also need to take care when adding the sugar to their whites - add too soon and they risk a weak meringue which is impossible to shape, but whisk for too long and the meringue might leak syrup during baking.”

These problems are made even worse when the meringue is used in a roulade, where the delicate meringues (or sponge) have to be rolled.

Goodall added: “Roulades present a completely different challenge, leaving a meringue or sponge to cool in the tin before rolling means it’ll be more likely to crack and break, making the perfect cross section swirl much harder to achieve.

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A good meringue is the key to a good roulade (Image: CHANNEL 4)

“Sainsbury’s recommends overcoming this by rolling the meringue up in greaseproof paper while it’s still warm so it takes on the desired shape before cooling and filling.”

The whole thing is such a pain, in fact, that she joked: “Or for customers looking to avoid the stress, our Toffee & Pecan Meringue Roulade is an easy win!”

Lemon meringue roulade recipe

For those not put off, however, Goodall recommended the following recipe for those wanting to make their own roulades.

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This week on Bake Off, the bakers will be making roulades for the signature challenge (Image: SAINBURY'S)

Ingredients

• 1 tsp vegetable oil, for greasing
• 4 medium free-range eggs, whites only
• 0.5 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 225 g white caster sugar
• 1 tsp cream of tartar
• 1 tsp white wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp icing sugar, for dusting
• 6 tbsp lemon curd, plus a little extra to decorate
• 300 ml fresh double cream, whipped
• 150 g fresh raspberries, washed, plus extra to decorate
• 2 tsp fresh mint leaves, washed to decorate

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Mint leaves make a great garnish for roulades (Image: CHANNEL 4)

Method

1 Preheat the oven to 190°C, fan 170°C, gas 5. Lightly oil a 25cm x 35cm Swiss roll tin and line with baking parchment so it stands just above the tin.

2 Using a hand-held electric whisk, whisk the egg whites with the lemon juice until soft peaks form, then whisk in half of the sugar until you have stiff peaks. Using a metal spoon, fold in the remaining sugar, a little at a time, until combined, and then fold in the cream of tartar and vinegar. Spread the meringue mixture evenly in the prepared tin.

3 Bake for 15-20 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool in the tin. Turn out onto a piece of baking parchment that’s dusted with a little icing sugar. Gently ease away the lining parchment from the base of the roulade.

4 Spread the lemon curd over the roulade, top with the whipped cream, leaving a 1cm border. Sprinkle with the raspberries.

5 With the shorter end facing you, roll up the roulade (don’t worry if it cracks!). Transfer to a serving dish, seam-side down. Drizzle the roulade with a little extra lemon curd and decorate with the extra raspberries and the mint leaves. Dust with icing sugar to serve.

The Great British Bake Off 2018 continues tonight at 8pm on Channel 4

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