Chocolate Christmas roll cake with sea salt

With Christmas just around the corner, we’re excited to get ready for the festivities! Christmas tree dominates the living room, lights are on and we’re now finalizing the menu. This Christmas is the first we’ll share with the girls and also the first far away from the family in France. It’s gonna be the first time we won’t bake the traditional Christmas cake for them too. We thought about making it travel across the Atlantic. But no.

Instead, we thought it would be nice sharing the secrets of a chocolate Christmas roll cake with sea salt recipe. It’s an easy  and quick recipe with simple ingredients that can be done anywhere in the world and a day in advance. It combines two basic preparations of the French gastronomy : a chocolate genoise and a ganache. Sounds terrifying? I promess it’s not. Let’s hack that Christmas chocolate roll cake together.

Happy Christmas to all <3! We wish you a marvellous celebration with lot of smiles and big eyes opened in front of the wonderful decorations and dishes secretly prepared by the elves overnight…

 

Christmas chocolate roll cake with sea salt

 

Ingredients (for 6 people):

For the chocolate genoise

• 4 eggs
• 125g sugar
• 100g flour
• 25g cocoa powder

For the ganache

• 250g dark chocolate 100%
• 250g whipping cream
• 50g butter
• 1 tablespoon of honey

+ 1 teaspoon of sea salt

+1 tablespoon of cocoa powder

 

The recipe (can be done a day in advance):

1. Chop the chocolate and place in a large bowl.
2. In a saucepan, mix the cream and honey and boil it.
3. Pour 1/3 of the cream on the chopped chocolate and mix with a spatula to emulsify. Add the rest of the cream in twice and stir until the chocolate and cream fully combine and become smooth. (If somehow, the chocolate and the cream don’t mix well and you end up with a messy granular texture, you may try to refridgerate the ganache and when it’s cooler, use a hand mixer to mix it again. It’s not 100% garanteed but it may work). Incorporate the butter quickly after so the ganache is still warm. Mix until homogeneous.
4. Cover with film and let it cool to room temperature.
5. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350F.
6. Combine the flour and cocoa powder and sieve.
7. Put the eggs and sugar in a bain-marie, heat (not exceeding 60C) and whisk.
8. Take out of the heat and finish whisking until the preparation is nicely foaming. Incorporate the flour and cocoa powder and mix very gently using a spatula (to avoid the eggs to deflate).
9. Spread the mix on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper using a spatula. Cook for 20 minutes.
10. {Grandma tip} Put the genoise directly from the oven on a humid dish towel and roll it inside. (Because we don’t use any soaking syrup, this helps keeping the cake moist to roll the genoise without breaking it) Let it cool for 15 minutes before unrolling. Remove the edges if necessary to make a nice rectangular shape.
11. Spread 3/4 of the chocolate ganache homogeneously. Sprinkle the sea salt on top. Then, roll the cake. Spread the other 1/4 of the ganache on the cake using a spatula for a smooth finish. Refridgerate.
12. Take out of the fridge 20 minutes before serving. At last, sieve some cocoa powder on the cake and sprinkle some sea salt on top.