Swiss roll with mascarpone cream, basil and honey, covered with lime glaze and walnuts

I am very proud of this Swiss roll, because it perfectly reflects the state I was in the day before yesterday, when it occurred to me to prepare it. I was having one of those days where I really missed my country and wanted a dessert that would remind me of it, without forgetting that I am in Italy, and I felt like experimenting, after having spent the day wide-eyed, reading news about the triumph of El Celler de Can Roca as the best restaurant in the world of the year, according to the British magazine Restaurant.

It is not that my admiration for the Teresines has made me take their motto “if she can do it, so can I” literally, and believe that I can cook something comparable to the inventions of the Roca brothers, but who doesn’t feel like playing a little in the kitchen after seeing the gastronomic wonders that can be invented? Thinking, thinking, in the end, I came up with a Swiss roll version of an ice cream that I tried at the ice cream parlor that here in Rome has the most fame for being original, regarding unusual flavors: the walnut, basil, and honey ice cream from Fatamorgana. Since I didn’t have the recipe, I had to figure it out by taking as a base the classic Swiss roll sponge cake by Eva Arguiñano, and the 3 ingredients that give the ice cream its name.

At first, I wanted to make the cream to fill it based on whipped cream, but in the end, I thought that by also adding mascarpone, it would have a consistency that would go better with the chopped basil and mint. I added mint because I had heard that it helps the basil to highlight the fresh notes it already has. Even so, tasting the sponge cake and the cream separately, for my taste, the whole thing lacked a bit more freshness and sweetness, but I didn’t want to abuse the honey anymore. From there came the idea of the lime glaze with which I covered the Swiss roll, which also served to stick the chopped walnuts to it. (Hey, but don’t overdo it with the glaze, because it is quite intense and everything would just taste like lime)

Swiss roll with mascarpone, basil, and honey cream, covered with lime glaze and walnuts

Autor: La ragazza col mattarello

Número de raciones: 8

Ingredientes

• Dough
• 4 eggs
• 100 g sugar
• 100 g flour
• 1 sachet of instant yeast (royal)
• Cream
• 170 g whipping cream
• 2 eggs
• 200 g mascarpone
• 70 g honey
• 12 basil leaves
• 6 mint leaves
• Topping
• 50 g walnuts
• 50 g powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons water
• 3 tablespoons sweet lime juice

Instrucciones

1. Whip the cream.
2. Beat the egg yolks with the honey and the basil and mint leaves that we have previously chopped, until obtaining a cream that will have a texture and color similar to pastry cream.
3. Add the mascarpone and stir, until the mascarpone and the cream are well combined, without lumps of mascarpone.
4. Incorporate the whipped cream, stirring very carefully, from the bottom to the top of the cream, to lose as little volume as possible from the cream.
5. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave it in the fridge while we prepare the following steps.
6. Put the egg whites in one bowl and the yolks in another.
7. Start whipping the egg whites. When they have started to rise, add half of the sugar. Continue whipping until they are stiff peaks.
8. Beat the yolks with the rest of the sugar, until they form a very frothy light yellow cream.
9. Join the whipped egg whites and the yolk cream, stirring very carefully, from the bottom to the top of the cream, to lose as little volume as possible from the whipped egg whites.
10. Add the flour and the yeast passed through a sieve, little by little, stirring constantly.
11. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees.
12. Put baking paper on the oven tray.
13. Spread the dough evenly on the tray.
14. Bake the dough for 12 minutes.
15. Take it out of the oven, cover it with a damp kitchen towel, and let it cool.
16. Fill with the cream and roll it up.
17. Chop the walnuts.
18. Prepare the glaze by stirring the water, lime juice, and powdered sugar with a spoon.
19. Impregnate the outside of the Swiss roll with the glaze with the help of a spoon or a brush.
20. Drop pieces of chopped walnut over the Swiss roll.
21. Put the Swiss roll in the freezer for a while before serving, so that the cream hardens a little and it is easier to cut it without it getting squashed.

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