White Chocolate Swiss Roll

Instructions

Cake

Preheat the oven to 180C or160C for fan assisted ovens and line the sides and base of a swiss roll tin with baking paper.

Place the white chocolate in a bowl, suspend it over a pan of barely simmering water and allow to melt slowly. Remove the pan from the heat and leave to cool a little.

Crack the eggs into a large bowl and add the almond extract followed by the sugar. Whisk for about 10 minutes until pale and thickened (the whisk should leave a trail when moved through the mixture). Carefully fold the melted chocolate into the mixture, then the flour.

Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 15 - 25 minutes until spongy. Place a large sheet of baking paper on a work surface and dust with caster sugar.

Remove the cooked sponge from the oven and quickly flip the tin over onto the sugared paper. Remove the tin, then carefully peel away the paper from the base of the sponge. Loosely roll up the sponge and sugared paper together, from the short end. Leave to cool completely.

Filling

Slowly melt the chocolate as in step 2, then allow to cool a little. In a large bowl, lightly whip the double cream with the scraped vanilla seeds, then fold through the melted chocolate. Unroll the sponge and spread over the chocolate and cream mixture, leaving a 1cm border. Spoon in the jam before carefully re-rolling the sponge (without the paper). Allow to cool completely.

Wrap tightly in more baking paper, then cling film, and freeze for up to 3 months. Defrost thoroughly before serving in thick slices.