Mermaid Kitchen: Arctic Roll

A few weeks ago, my favourite YouTube channel SortedFood posted a video where two of the presenters cooked a Swiss roll without a recipe. As usual, it was all very hilarious and sparked an idea which had been mooching around my head for a while.

I love Arctic roll. It was always a treat my grandparents would have in the freezer for when we visited. While living on my own I definitely demolished an entire roll to myself on more than one occasion. (Don't judge, you'd do it too!) Presently, it is a treat I deny myself because of the unnecessary plastic packaging and it is so rarely on offer. But watching the Sorted boys flail about the kitchen gave me an idea.

I can make ice cream. They just provided me with a recipe for Swiss roll. Why not put the two together?!

That's a good looking forkful!

Was it genius or just plain crazy?

Well, after the fact, I can tell you it was a mix of the two!

I used this recipe as a base for my sponge and the ice cream recipe I've used in the past, along with some coulis I'd made for a previous batch of ice cream. It, urm, mostly went well! I only had two eggs, so I had to reduce the amount of sponge so it didn't actually fill the tray I used! And during the construction of the roll a lot of ice cream exploded out so I had to call in the cavalry to help remove it from the tea towel. But it tasted damn fine, so I'm calling it a win, over all. A win, with a few lessons learned for the next Arctic roll.

My initial impression was a little scathing.

INGREDIENTS

Sponge:

• 2 eggs
• 50g caster sugar
• 50g SR flour
• 1tsp vanilla
• Extra sugar for dusting

(For increased quantities: 1 egg = 25g sugar and flour.)

Ice Cream:

• 600ml double cream
• 1 can of condensed milk
• 1 tsp vanilla

Coulis:

• Frozen fruit - I used blackberries, black currants, and strawberries
• Lemon juice
• Caster sugar

I honestly do not have quantities for the coulis as I guestimate it every time! I tend to do a wodge of fruit then do lemon and sugar to taste and thickness.

The batter not quite reaching the edge.

METHOD

For the coulis:

1. Get a medium sized pan, place your frozen fruits in it, and put it onto a medium heat.
2. Add a generous drizzle of lemon juice and a couple spoonfuls of sugar. Stir it all in.
3. Let it come to a boil and keep stirring. Taste occasionally, repeating step two as needed.
4. Once thick and sweet enough for your needs, take it off the heat.
5. You can leave it to cool at this point, but I generally don't bother. Strain it through a sieve, smushing out as many of the big lumps as you can. It'll take a few goes.
6. If you have a blender (hand, smoothie, food processor), blitz the whole mixture to get rid of those last few sneaky lumps. That way you're wasting as little as possible and getting the maximum amount of coulis.
7. Repeat steps 6 and 7 until the desired texture is achieved. If you like lumpy coulis, only do it once; if you like smooth coulis then you'll be there a while!
8. Decant into a tub, serve on ice cream, or freeze for a later date. (Must be cool before freezing, but it should honestly be cool enough after all the straining!)

My coulis was frozen when I made the Arctic roll, so I had to leave that to defrost. If you're doing this all in one sitting, leave some to the side so that it can be used in assembly later. 

Here is some coulis I prepared earlier.

For the sponge:

1. Line a baking tray, ensuring the lining goes up the edges.
2. Preheat the oven to 180C.
3. Measure out the eggs, sugar, and vanilla into one bowl and whisk. I used a hand whisk but a standing mixer with the whisk attachment works too. (I covet a standing mixer but lack the space, hence the hand whisk.)
4. Whisk until the mixture triples in volume and is thick enough to draw a figure of eight with the drips from the whisk. It should be a nice, fluffy white batter.
5. Gradually sieve the flour into the batter and fold it in. Be careful to not overwork the batter and knock out too much air.
6. Gently pour into the tray and push to the edges. Again, try not to overwork the batter.
7. Bake in the oven for 8-9 minutes or until a nice golden colour.
8. While it bakes, dampen a clean tea towel. It needs to be only just damp, so wring it out as much as possible. The only thing the extra moisture will do is make your sponge a little denser, but it does also make it stickier (as I well learned!).
9. Lay the tea towel flat on the surface and dust it with a couple spoonfuls of sugar. How much you use depends on how much sugar you want coating the outside.
10. Once cooked, upend the sponge tray onto the sugary towel. Remove the tray and gently peel away the liner. It should come clean away with just a thin layer on sponge left on the sheet (not take massive clumps).
11. Score the sponge lightly about an inch away from one of the shorter edges. This will make it easier to make the first roll.
12. Roll the sponge, with the damp sponge trapped inside the rolls. Leave to cool completely.

It doesn't take too long for the sponge to cool, just long enough to make the ice cream filling. Obviously, you can leave it longer if it's needed or if you are assembling later.

Ready to roll!

For the ice cream:

1. Decant the double cream into a bowl and whisk until it forms soft peaks. Use a hand whisk, makes life sooooo much quicker.
2. Add the condensed milk and the vanilla.
3. Whisk again until it reaches a similar consistency to before.
4. Ordinarily at this point you'd decant it into a freezer safe tub and put it in the freezer, but as it needs to go in the roll just put it to one side for now.

Nearly there - just need to assemble!

Whizzzzzzzz

For assembling:

1. On a flat surface, unroll the sponge carefully. Hopefully there will be no cracks, but hey mine was cracked! It's not the end of the world, it just means a bit more ice cream will leak.
2. Make sure it is definitely cool!
3. Spread a thin layer of coulis on the sponge. Or thick. You do you.
4. Scoop blobs of the ice cream mix on next. I went very generous and regretted it when it exploded later! Getting the right amount will take practice. Oh no, you'll just have to make and eat more Arctic rolls!
5. Now for the hard part. Rolling it. Use the tea towel to help. Maybe an extra set of hands. I tried to get a swirl of sponge in the middle of mine but that did not happen by a long shot. So I figure just aim for the sponge around the ice cream.
6. Once rolled, place into a freezer proof tub with the fold on the underside which should help to keep everything in place. This may take some doing: I needed two spatulas and four hands!
7. When in the tub, pop it in the freezer and freeze for at least 5 hours.
8. Don't forget to decant and freeze the remainder of your ice cream and coulis too!

And there you have it! Arctic roll. It seems like a lot but each section was relatively quick and the coulis always makes loads so next time that won't need making! Or you could just use jam.

Coming together

Whoops!

Not bad for a first go!

This is definitely a recipe I am going to try again. I want to make a bigger sponge - need to remember the eggs! - and I reckon it wouldn't be too hard to mix it up a little. Chocolate sponge, chocolate spread, chocolate ice cream - for one. Maybe coffee ice cream with a cinnamon sponge. Not that there was anything wrong with the vanilla and coulis version. Like I said, it was super tasty! I just like variety and versatile recipes. That way if I'm making for someone else, I can tailor it to their likes.

Look at that cross section.

Would you attempt this beast of a recipe? What flavour combos would you go for? What should I try making next? Lemme know below!

Listening to: Acoustic Covers