Chocolate Peppermint Swiss Roll

Chocolate Swiss rolls are such an eye-catching holiday treat, aren’t they?

I’ve made this one with a peppermint whipped cream filling, rich chocolate ganache on the outside, and a crushed peppermint candy sprinkled on top, giving it a particularly festive, wintry air.

The light, springy cake practically melts in your mouth. If you’re looking for a show-stopper __dessert for your holiday table, this is it.

I based the sponge cake part of this recipe on a classic chocolate genoise. This style of cake doesn’t contain any leaveners, like baking soda or baking powder. Instead, it relies on eggs to get its lift.

To make sure the eggs whisk into a strong, stable foam (which in turn helps make a reliable and delicious cake), you warm them briefly with the sugar over a double-boiler.

A double-boiler just involves warming a few inches of water in a medium-sized saucepan and setting a bowl over top. The bowl should rest on the lip of the saucepan above the water, like an egg in an eggcup. It’s ok if the bowl touches the water, but it shouldn’t touch the bottom of the pan.

Whisking the eggs in a double-boiler warms them gently without risk that they will overcook or curdle. You’ll also use a double-boiler later in the recipe to melt the chocolate for the ganache; in that instance, the double boiler helps melt the chocolate evenly and without scorching.

There’s really only one other daunting moment in this recipe – rolling up the cake! The trick for this is to roll the cake around a clean kitchen towel while it’s still warm from the oven, then letting it cool in this position before frosting.

Rolling and cooling the cake like this gives it the ability to hold the rolled shape without cracking. To add the frosting, you’ll just gently unroll it, remove the towel, then frost it and roll it back up. The process requires a bit of confidence, but if you work swiftly, you’ll be amazed at how simply the roll comes together.

Once the cake has been filled, all that’s left to do is drizzle it with chocolate ganache and sprinkle some crushed peppermint over top. You’re ready to slice and serve!