Banana Roll (dessert)

You'll need a hand/stand mixer (or good stamina with a whisk.)

Dough:

4 egg whites
1 cup sugar
1 cup chopped and toasted walnuts (or pecans/hazelnuts/almonds)
1 teaspoon corn starch
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Filling:

1/2 pint heavy whipping cream
The seeds from one vanilla pod (or vanilla essence)
1 bar of milk chocolate, chopped (or half a cup of chocolate chips)
Confectioner's sugar to taste
2-3 bananas, peeled and sliced into 1/2 inch thick pieces


* Start oven at 400F and also toast the chopped nuts in piping hot, dry skillet

* Whip the egg whites into a soft foam, add sugar a little at a time until you have a firm and shiny meringue (pull out the whisk and little tops should form at the end), then whip in lemon juice and corn starch

* Carefully fold in the nuts

* Spread evenly (1/2 to 1 inch layer) on a cookie sheet and bake it in the oven at 400F for 10 minutes

* Turn oven down to 350F and bake for another 10 minutes

It will be thick and bubbled up and starting to brown at this point, it needs to be uniformly flat, so:

* Take it out of the oven, and flip the cake over onto another cookie sheet and leave the original sheet attached on top

* Leave it covered with a slightly moist tea towel and let it cool down

* Make the filling by whipping the cream and adding the vanilla, and confectioner's sugar to taste (you don't want it too sweet.) Fold in the chocolate.

* Pull the top cookie sheet off the cake (careful, it's somewhat fragile) and spread your whipped cream evenly onto your cake, then layer the sliced bananas on top of that

* Use the cookie sheet it's sitting on to help you roll it up, you want the end of the cake to be somewhere in the middle of the finished cake, showing a nice swirly pattern when cut.

* Leave the finished roll in the fridge for at least an hour, serve cold and sliced into pieces

Finished product (half eaten wink ):

[Linked Image from lh6.googleusercontent.com]


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