Gluten-free Swiss roll filled with peaches and cream

Welcome to my blog ‘Making lifetweaks’. The goal of my blog is to help you manage your every day with more calm, sense of direction and breathing space, whether you are living your life with coeliacs disease, like me, or not.

Swiss roll filled with whipped cream and peaches (gluten-free). — This dreamy, easy-to-make gluten-free treat will satisfy both coealiacs and non-coealiacs with a sweet tooth alike!

I wanted to start my blog with something very tangible that you can use straight away. What would be better than a sweet bake that is easy enough to do, even if you haven’t baked at all before. Also, a Swiss roll actually turns out airier and fluffier when made from starchy flours so the fact that it’s gluten-free will do nothing but enhance it and you can enjoy the recipe, even if you don’t need a gf diet yourself. Baking and cooking your own things will in the long run save you money, make you more aware of the things you eat and even give you a nice hobby if you learn to enjoy it at least a bit.

The Swiss roll is a nice cake in the sense that when you have the basics down, you can change up the fillings according to the season and special diets easily and you can also coat and decorate which any way you like to make the roll into a cake or individual plated desserts. To this one I chose tinned peaches and whipping cream because during winter months at least here in the UK the imported berries aren’t maybe the best they could be and I’d prefer to use what’s in season. It’s also a combination that I have learned to love since I was a child.

I will add a step-by-step picture guide to help you, if baking or making a Swiss roll is new to you, but you can also just read the recipe and get on with things if you are a seasoned baker.

Recipe and step-by-step guide:

Ingredients (cake):

4 eggs (room temperature)
1 1/2 dl sugar
1dl gluten-free plain flour
0.5dl corn flour
1tsp gf baking powder (leave out if using self-raising flour mix)

Ingredients of the cake. — The ingredients for the Swiss roll. You can also use potato starch instead of corn flour. When making a gluten-free bake, check that your baking powder is also gluten-free, not just the flours.

Ingredients (filling):

1 tub/bottle of whipping cream (I used lactose-free) or double cream
1 tin of whole peaches preserved in juice
1/2 tsp of vanilla paste or vanilla extract
2 tbsp of icing sugar (or caster sugar)

If you want to coat the roll to make it in to a cake, double the amount of cream, sufar and vanilla.

Ingredients of the filling. — My daughter is lactose intolerant, so I opted for lactose free whipping cream. You can use regular, or double-cream, which will make a denser whip. Feel free to use a non-dairy alternative of your preferance, as well.

Method:

Whisk the eggs and sugar into an airy white foam (so that the foam holds the figure eight you make on it).

When the figure 8 made with the whisk stays on the foam, you have whipped enough. — To check if you have whipped the sugar and eggs enough, turn off the whisk, lift it up from the bowl and make a figure 8 with the dripping foam. If it holds a few seconds in shape, your foam is airy enough and you can start to shift the flour mixture in.

2. Combine the dry ingredients and shift them in the foam gently folding in.

Shifting the flour mixture in the egg and sugar foam gently folding with a spatula. — Gluten-free flour is often finer and starchier so it can form clumps and is best to shift it when you add it into the batter. I bought this sieve to make mixing and shifting easier but I have to say the mechanism is rather infuriating. Shaking the sieve works a lot better…

3. Pour the batter on to a deep baking tray that has been lined with non-stick baking paper. Use a spatula or a pallette knife to even the batter out into a layer of about 1/2 inch (10-12mm).

Spreading the batter on the non-stick baking paper lined tray as an even layer with a spatula. — The thickness of the cake will depend on the size of tray you have. If the batter is really thin, the cake will dry out and if too thick, it might be difficult to make the roll. About half an inch (10-12mm) is probably ideal.

4. Bake in a 200C/(185C fan assisted) oven for appr. 8-10min until golden brown.

Bake the cake in the middle of the oven in 200C/185C fan-assisted oven. — In case you have a lot of excess in the baking paper, youcan trim it down so that the fan doesn’t turn it on the cake and make it stick.

5. Turn the cake onto a baking paper that’s been covered in caster sugar.

Coat another piece of baking paper with caster sugar, and turn the baked cakesheet on it. — The turning of the cake sheet onto the other paper is the trickiest part of the Swiss roll, I feel. Place the tray on to a heatproof surface next to the sugared paper and carefully lift the cake off the tray by the sides of the baking paper. Turn over and place on to the sugar.

6. Carefully peel away the baking paper from the cake (pull along, not up).

Peeling the baking paper away from the cake. — When peeling the paper of the cake, pull along the cake, instead of pulling up to minimize tear.

7. While the cake cools down, whip up the cream. I like using an electric hand whisk for I think it gives best control of the end result and I just don’t want to spend the time whipping cream by hand with a ball whisk (it can be done, if you haven’t got an electric one). Start by pouring the cream into a rather wide large bowl and then add the sugar in the cream, it will dissolve any lumps, and the vanilla.

Pour the cream in to a large bol, add sugar and vanilla. — You can use icing sugar or caster sugar, the cream will dissolve it.

8.Start whisking with the lowest setting and speed up when the cream starts to turn into a foam. Be very careful as the cream starts to firm up and lower the setting. You need a firm whip with distinct peaks so that it doesn’t ooze out of the roll, but taking the cream too far so that it splits into butter can happen really quickly so rather leave it a tad too soft than go over.

Cream is ready when you have firm peaks that stand up. — The cream is ready when you get peaks that stay up. Be careful not to curdle the cream.

9. Cut the peaches in to small cubes. If you want, you can leave a few halves for decoration and cut them into slices or what you like. If you want to coat the Swiss roll completely with cream, you need to double the amount of whipped cream you are making.

Cut peaches into cubes. You might save some for decoration and cut into slices.

10. Mix the pieces of peach into the cream (I ended up using all the peaches and the cream in the filling). Spread an even layer of filling onto the cake.

11. With the help of the baking paper using both hands, roll the cake from the shorter edge to form the Swiss roll. Turn the seam to the bottom.

When rolling the cake into a roll, start from the middle, use the baking paper to help. — Starting from the middle towards the edges, roll the cake into a firm roll but don’t make it too tight so that the filling doesn’t squeeze out.

Ready-rolled cake. — The ready roll is rather firm and should rather esy to lift to a serving dish after trimming the ends,

You can coat the roll with whipped cream or ganache or whatever you wish or serve it as it is. Trim the ends before serving. You can also cut into pieces and make individual little cakes by topping the slices with cream, fruit etc.

Gluten-Free Life Tweaks

Helping you feel better about your gluten-free diet