Lucky Gaia! This dessert should be called that, instead I used the name Recipe Biscuit Roll, but you need to know the truth, it’s essential to tell you! If you’ve been a follower of my blog for a while, you know very well that Gaia is one of my friends. With her, I prepared the Homemade Crepes that just wouldn’t turn out well!
With Gaia I often have lunch after making some new recipes, so we can taste them together and talk about them to understand their strengths and weaknesses, possible variations to make, wine pairings, since she is a sommelier, and especially think about new recipes to propose on the blog. Our original creation is the Cappuccino Madeleine Recipe with Cocoa Cream and Salted Caramel!
I have always told her that if I ever get to the point where I can afford a first employee, I would want it to be her: precise, tidy, organized and above all she cooks excellently. So, who better than her to compensate for my forgetfulness, my disorder, my never being organized in life?!? And so I explain to you what happened for this Biscuit Roll!
As with the crepes, I invited Gaia to dinner asking her to bring her pans for the biscuit roll, so I could prepare it with her, as I was already on my second attempt and hadn’t succeeded yet. This recipe is simple for many, they often prepare it as she does, for me it had become a real nightmare. Underbaked biscuit roll, roll breaking, roll that wouldn’t roll, imagine the wordplay and stress in my head! So I asked for her help, we prepared all the ingredients, followed her recipe and in the end the roll was there! Beautifully puffy, golden, soft as it should be and above all delicious!
Two weeks ago, still having her pans around, I decided to try alone, I wanted to make her proud by preparing the Biscuit Roll by myself! My father, his partner, and even my boyfriend gave the result top marks!
Finally, a good biscuit roll, soft, delicious, in short perfect to present to you here on the blog, especially since I made it myself, because it was easy to take photos of the one made by Gaia and tell you I made it, but that would have been a lie and I don’t like to work that way. I know you try my recipes and I absolutely don’t want to lie to you who put your trust in me!
I added this recipe to the Basic Recipe Collection because, like the Margherita Cake, the classic Pound Cake without butter, the 7 Jars Cake, the Brioche Bread and the Danube, I think they are now part of the home cooking, that each of us knows one or more recipes of these just mentioned desserts and it’s fair to have a basic recipe portfolio to always carry with us. Of all the recipes just listed I’ll leave clickable links below, so you can read and save them, and especially try them!
The last thing before moving on to the recipe of this dessert is that I’m waiting for you every morning in the group and on the Facebook fan page with the Recipe of the Day, now an unmissable appointment for all friends of Bea’s Recipes!
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Very inexpensive
- Rest time: 2 Hours
- Preparation time: 20 Minutes
- Portions: 8 People
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Christmas, All seasons
- Energy 377.53 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 33.88 (g) of which sugars 22.53 (g)
- Proteins 12.85 (g)
- Fat 20.96 (g) of which saturated 2.47 (g)of which unsaturated 2.99 (g)
- Fibers 2.35 (g)
- Sodium 134.40 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 122 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ingredients for Biscuit Roll Recipe
- 5 eggs (at room temperature)
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 pinch salt
- 7/8 cup hazelnut cream (or other cream of your choice)
- as needed powdered sugar (optional)
I indicated powdered sugar but as you can see from the photos I haven’t added it, you know well I don’t like it much and therefore I always prefer to do without it, but the recipe is often presented with this ingredient and it was right to indicate it.
For the filling, let your creativity run wild. I presented this recipe for the first time and so it was almost obvious that the filling was with hazelnut cream or Nutella, as you want to call it. Of course, I will prepare the subsequent variations with other ingredients that I love and that are perfect for this biscuit roll. Surely one of the next times I will add Grandma Licia’s custard which everyone always likes!
Tools for Biscuit Roll
- 2 Bowls
- 1 Electric whisk
- 1 Rubber spatulas
- 1 Baking sheet
- 1 Parchment paper
- 1 Oven
- 1 Scale
- 1 Plastic wrap
- 1 Rolling board
The importance of the right tools is learned recipe after recipe, you’ll understand which ones are useful and which ones aren’t worth much except to clutter up the pantry or the oven. For example, I keep all the baking sheets I use for oven cooking in my oven. So I learned that to have a good biscuit roll that doesn’t break, that is cooked and especially beautifully golden, you needed the right baking sheets. Mine are too large, dispersive, and without the right edges for this recipe. I recommend purchasing those my friend Gaia has, which you can get on Amazon by clicking here!
Steps for Biscuit Roll Recipe
Pre-recipe premise: if you noticed the cooking and preparation times are very short, the resting time instead is longer and it’s also the most fundamental for the success of this biscuit roll dessert!
So take the necessary time for preparation and especially for waiting, everything in its own time and you won’t regret it!
Let’s start by separating the yolks from the whites, remember eggs at room temperature. If you keep them in the fridge, take them out 3 to 4 hours before starting. Now we will start working, the whites with a pinch of salt until they become beautifully dense and foamy. It will take about 5 or 6 minutes.
Turn on the oven in static mode at 375°F. Then work at medium power with the whisks, the yolks with the sugar, so be careful, wait at least ten minutes before turning off the whisk.
I’m not exaggerating, also depending on the size of the eggs, how much air we can incorporate in the cream, it might take between 10 and 15 minutes of work. Add the tablespoon of vanilla extract or a vanilla vial or lemon flavor if you prefer.
Then sift the flour into the bowl where we whipped the yolks to foam, and now, with a rubber spatula or marisa or spatula, work the dough with an upward motion to avoid deflating the mixture.
Then blend, always with a rubber spatula, also the whipped egg whites. In the video recipe, you can see the upward motion I just described. The biscuit dough is ready.
Now take a baking sheet, in my case measuring 12×16 inches with high edges, place a sheet of parchment paper on the bottom and pour the mixture with the spatula. Level the surface and bake for about 6-7 minutes max on the middle rack of the oven. The surface will become beautifully golden, that will be the sign that the biscuit dough is ready.
Now a crucial step: take a wooden rolling board or any smooth work surface, place a new sheet of parchment paper on it, so it’s clean, sprinkle with white sugar, invert the biscuit dough on top. In the video you can clearly see this step because I was proud of myself for managing it on the first try without even breaking it.
Then cover with plastic wrap and let it rest for at least two hours. This will ensure that the moisture of the dessert doesn’t evaporate, so it doesn’t dry out, doesn’t harden, leaving the biscuit roll with that lovely and delicious consistency typical of this dessert.
After this time, we can finally fill the roll. I chose a hazelnut cream but obviously, you can try any filling that comes to your mind. Gently roll up the dessert using the parchment paper. If you like, you can also sprinkle with powdered sugar.
All that’s left is to wish you a good appetite and remind you that I’m waiting for you every day here live from my kitchen with many easy, quick, and delicious recipes like this one!
Thanks to my friend Gaia for her patience in dealing with me and my impossible recipes, her wows, and her little hearts that fill me with joy!
What I’ve learned after preparing this Biscuit Roll Recipe multiple times
You need calm and composure, oh no just kidding, but you really need calm. We need to respect the working times of the mixtures with electric whisks, so both for whipping the egg whites until dense and for the yolk cream with sugar.
Then calm when working with the rubber spatula the mixture with an upward motion.
Then you’ll need even more calm to wait the two hours of resting with plastic wrap to cool down the biscuit roll, so it can be soft for being rolled up with the filling.
Then there are the baking sheets, super important for this recipe. My sheets, as I mentioned, are too large and rightly didn’t give the necessary thickness to the biscuit dough precisely because the same amount of mixture wasn’t enough for such a large sheet. The 12×16 inch sheet is perfect for a roll with these ingredient amounts.
