Michelle's Freefrom Flourless Cobnut or Hazelnut Roulade with Espresso Cream

Corn, milk, nightshade, peanut, sesame & wheat free; can be gluten, lactose & soya free

As a great treat, we were given a bag of organic Kentish cobnuts last week – straight from the lovely Allen’s farm near Sevenoaks in Kent. The temptation is to shell them, roast them and eat them – but I did manage to rescue enough to make a couple of utterly delicious roulades. 
If you are not able to get any cobnuts, hazelnuts make a very good substitute.

Serves 6

Ingredients

  • 160g / 6oz roasted cobnuts or hazelnuts
  • 3 large eggs, separated
  • 80g / 3 oz pale muscovado sugar
  • 100g / 4 oz 85% dairy-free chocolate
  • 3 tbsp strong black espresso coffee
  • 3 tbsp oat, soya or goat cream
  • 1 tsp icing / confectioner’s sugar

Method

  1. Heat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4.
  2. Line a Swiss roll tin with lightly oiled greaseproof paper or baking parchment.
  3. Chop the nuts in a food processor until they are quite small but be careful not to reduce them to dust or they will go quite oily.
  4. You may need to empty them out when half chopped and just return the bigger lumps for a second processing.
  5. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar until they are light and fluffy.
  6. Fold in 100g / 4oz of the nuts.
  7. Whisk the egg whites in a separate bowl until they hold their shape in soft humps – do not let them get too dry and spiky.
  8. Gently stir a third of the whipped whites into the mixture then fold in the rest.
  9. Spoon into the prepared tin and bake for 20 minutes or until it is just firm to the touch.
  10. Remove for the oven, cover with another pieces of parchment and then with a damp tea towel.
  11. Leave of several hours of overnight.
  12. For the filling melt the chocolate in a microwave or over hot water.
  13. Remove from the heat and gradually stir in the remains of the nuts (reserving a few for decoration), the coffee and the cream.
  14. Set aside to cool.
  15. To serve, turn the roll upside down onto the sheet of parchment and the teacloth.
  16. Carefully remove the bottom sheet of parchment paper.
  17. Spread the filling over the roll pushing it out to the edges.
  18. Then using the cloth and the paper, gently roll it up and carefully transfer it to a serving dish.
  19. Using a sieve, sprinkle the top with icing/confectioner’s sugar and decorate with the nuts.

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