Pistachio chocolate roll - country living

10 servings

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
1½ cup Heavy cream
½ 12-oz pk semisweet
1 cup Sifted cake Hour
1 teaspoon Baking powder
¼ teaspoon Salt
4 Large eggs, at room temp.
¾ cup Granulated sugar
¼ cup Water
½ teaspoon Almond extract
Confectioners' sugar chocolate chips (1 C)
Chocolate Bark (recipe follows;(opt.)
3 tablespoons Grand Marnier or other orange-flavored liqueur
½ cup Chopped shelled pistachios
Unshelled pistachios and fresh pistachios with their leaves (opt.)

Directions

FILLING

CAKE

1. Prepare Filling: In 1-quart saucepan, combine ¾ C cream and chocolate chips. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture bubbles and thickens to a thin-pudding consistency.

Pour mixture into medium-size bowl; cover and refrigerate until cold-about 2 hours.

2. Prepare Cake: Grease and flour a 15½ by 10 ½-inch jelly-roll pan. In small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt.

3. Heat oven to 375'F. In large bowl, with electric mixer at high speed, beat eggs until fluffy. Gradually add granulated sugar, beating constantly, until mixture is pale yellow and very thick-about 5 minutes. Reduce speed to low; beat in water and almond extract.

Grad- ually sift flour mixture over egg mixture and with rubber spatula, gently fold in until batter is smooth. Spread batter in prepared pan.

4. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until center of cake springs back when lightly pressed with fingertip. Meanwhile, sprinkle clean cloth towel with confectioners' sugar. When cake is done, loosen around the edges with a small knife. Invert cake and pan onto towel; lift off pan.

With knife, trim off crisp edges of cake. Starting from one short edge, roll up cake with towel. Place rolled cake, seam side down, on wire rack to cool completely. Meanwhile, prepare Chocolate Bark, if using.

5. To assemble roll: Stir remaining ¼ C cream into cooled chocolate-filling mixture until no streaks of white remain. With electric mixer, beat chocolate mixture until fluffy and stiff peaks form. (Do not overheat; it can curdle.) Carefully unroll cake.

Sprinkle surface of cake with liqueur. Evenly spread two thirds of chocolate filling over cake. Sprinkle filling with 7 T chopped pistachios. Roll up cake firmly without towel. Place cake, seam side down, on serving platter. Spread remaining filling over outside of cake.

6. If desired, press Chocolate Bark lengthwise over surface of log.

Sprinkle top with remaining chopped pistachios. Refrigerate roll until serving time. Before serving, garnish platter with bowl of pistachios and fresh pistachios with leaves, if desired.

Chocolate Bark: In 1-quart saucepan, melt four 1-oz squares semisweet chocolate, chopped, over very low heat just until smooth, stirring constantly. Cool until it will mound. Pour chocolate onto a small piece of aluminum foil and shape into a 3-inch square about ½ inch thick. Refrigerate just until set but not too firm. If chocolate is too firm, it will be too brittle to cut. With small thin-bladed knife held in a slanted position, scrape across chocolate to get thin sliv- ers of chocolate to resemble tree bark.

Country Living/Nov/90 Scanned & fixed by DP & GG

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