Chocolate Roulade

My mom was not much of a baker. At our house, all cookies were chocolate chip (from the recipe on the bag of chips) or spritz cookies at holidaytime. Her cakes were from boxed mixes. (She still calls them “stupid cakes” because “any stupid fool can make one.”) That was pretty much her dessert repertoire. Mom did have one dessert that always wowed the crowd, Roulage Léontine, from Dione Lucas’s 1964 classic, The Gourmet Cooking School Cookbook. While I’ve updated the recipe and called it Chocolate Roulade, in my heart this is still the 1960’s-era dessert that my mom made when she really wanted to impress her dinner guests. 

The cookbook is organized as a set of menus. The roulage or roulade ( a more modern term) is part of Menu 27, which starts with an Omelette aux Fines Herbes, moves onto Poulet Majorca and Pommes de Terres Sauteé, and finishes with the roulage/roulade. The recommended wine for the meal was Portugese Lancers. Quite a throwback to be sure.

Paging through the book, I’m transported back to the days of Julia Child and the American fascination with classical Continental cuisine. In the intervening decades, Julia became an icon and Dione faded from our collective culinary consciousness. Still, I keep coming back to Dione and her roulage/roulade.

I’ve toned the recipe’s sweetness down, switching from sweet dark chocolate to a combination of bittersweet and semi-sweet. Also, I moved from a fairly sweet vanilla whipped cream to a mocha or other flavored filling. Still, it continues to be a glorious, flourless (gluten-free) fallen chocolate soufflé filled with whipped cream.

Tips for Making Chocolate Roulade

• Be Organized. Mise en place (or everything in its place – setting out your ingredients beforehand and keeping the next step in mind as you move along) takes on new meaning when you are working with what is essentially a fallen chocolate soufflé. 
• The Temperature of the Eggs Matters. Start with cold eggs. They are easier to separate than room temperature ones. However, the warmer egg whites whip up better. So separate the eggs soon after taking them out of the refrigerator. Let the whites warm up while you work with the yolks and chocolate. When you separate each egg, let the white drip into a small container. Do not allow any yolk to get into the white. Pour that white into the larger bowl of whites. (Even a drop of yolk in the whites will prevent them from whipping.)
• Don’t Overbeat the Eggs or Cream. Be gentle as you whip the egg whites and cream. Resist the urge to overdo it. An extra minute of beating “just to be sure” can decimate fluffy egg whites or turn whipped cream practically into butter. The same goes for folding the egg whites and the chocolate. A few soft sweeps that melds the two almost-but-not-completely is better than a vigorous mixing that deflates the air you have so carefully whipped into the egg whites.
• Keep track of time. The chocolate soufflé should not be over-baked and needs the specified resting time (under paper towels) to remain moist for rolling. These steps take less than 45 minutes, but are essential. (You may notice that my roll is less than perfect. Sure a crack in the top of the roll would be a point against you on The Great British Baking Show. However, I’m just a home baker doing my best. )
• Be Brave. Flipping the chocolate roll over and rolling it is not for the faint of heart. Be brave and go for it!