Wild Garlic Roulade

Hello food lovers,

Spring is just around the corner, which means wild garlic season is open! :-)

I love this time of year, it's a shame it's so short... ;-)

I wanted to take advantage of being right in the middle of wild garlic picking season to share a recipe with you.

Here is my wild garlic roulade, filled with a pesto and a cream cheese filling.

To make this recipe, you will need:

Wild garlic pesto

- 25gr pine nuts

- 50gr wild garlic

- 25gr grated Sbrinz

- 75gr olive oil

Wild garlic sponge

- 3 eggs

- 15gr wild garlic

- 25gr olive oil

- 60gr flour

- 1 tsp baking powder

- 5 turns of the pepper mill

- 2 pinches of salt

Cream cheese filling

- 100gr heavy cream

- 200gr herb cream cheese (Tartare)

- 5 turns of the pepper mill

- 2 pinches of salt

Wild garlic pesto

To start, we will make a wild garlic pesto.

Preheat your oven to 180°C fan heat.

On a perforated baking tray, place a perforated mat and spread out 25gr of pine nuts.

Toast them in the preheated oven for 7 minutes to roast them, which will give them a more pronounced flavour.

Then let them cool at room temperature for a few minutes.

Then roughly chop 50gr of wild garlic and place it in a blender.

In our assortment, we have this blender which will be perfect for making this delicious pesto.

Add 25gr of grated Sbrinz, the pine nuts we just toasted, and 75gr of olive oil.

Blend everything into a very fine purée. While blending, stop the blender from time to time to scrape down the sides towards the centre for a smooth, lump-free consistency.

There we go, our pesto is ready. Pour it into a bowl while we prepare the rest of the recipe.

If you make it in advance, transfer it to a sealed glass jar and keep it in the fridge.

Wild garlic sponge

We will now prepare the wild garlic roulade sponge.

Start by separating the whites from the yolks of 3 eggs.

Roughly chop 15gr of wild garlic and place it in the blender bowl (the same one used for the pesto).

Add 25gr of olive oil and blend everything together. Set aside.

No need for a smooth purée like before, it's enough to blend everything roughly.

In a bowl, pour the 3 egg yolks and add 60gr of flour. Mix together using a whisk.

Also add the wild garlic/olive oil mixture and 2 tbsp of lukewarm water.

Mix everything together well using a spatula.

Add 1 tsp of baking powder. Use measuring spoons — they are super handy! :-)

We will now season everything with 5 turns of the pepper mill and 2 pinches of salt. Keep mixing with the spatula.

Preheat your oven to 170°C fan heat.

In a large bowl, pour the 3 egg whites and using the whisk attachment of your stand mixer, beat them into stiff peaks.

Fold the egg whites into the previous mixture gently using the spatula.

I recommend adding them in several additions so as not to deflate the egg whites.

You will get a smooth and airy mixture, which is what gives the roulade its softness.

There we go, our batter is nicely mixed.

On a perforated baking tray, place a sponge mat.

The sponge mat is great. With it, you will get beautiful, evenly-sized sponges. We actually have many recipes made with this mat, such as the tomato-cream cheese roulade, the strawberry roulade, the spooky Halloween chocolate roulade, and much more! It's truly a great investment! ;-)

To avoid any unpleasant surprises when unmoulding, spray the mat generously with release spray.

Pour your batter onto the sponge mat, then spread it evenly using a large offset spatula.

Bake for 10 minutes in the middle of the preheated oven.

During baking, we will prepare a tray with a cloth and a sheet of baking paper so we can turn the sponge out onto it once it is baked.

The cloth will help the sponge retain moisture, keeping it soft.

There we go, our sponge is baked. Turn it out onto the tray we just prepared.

Carefully remove the sponge mat, which will come off very easily thanks to the release spray.

Flip the sponge so that the "wrong side" is facing you (the wrong side is the one that was on top during baking).

Then place a new sheet of baking paper on top of the sponge. You will then have one sheet underneath and one on top.

Roll the sponge between the two sheets of baking paper, cover the roll with a cloth, and let it cool completely at room temperature.

Cream cheese filling

Once the sponge has cooled completely, we will prepare the filling mixture.

In a jug, pour 100gr of heavy cream.

Using a whisk, whip it into a firm whipped cream.

In a bowl, weigh out 200gr of herb cream cheese. For this recipe, I used the "Tartare" brand.

Add the whipped cream to the cream cheese and fold gently with a spatula.

Add 5 turns of the pepper mill and 2 pinches of salt and mix again.

In a small bowl, set aside 70gr of the cream cheese filling which we will use for the final decoration.

Unroll the sponge and spread, using a small offset spatula, 120gr of pesto made at the very beginning of the recipe.

Then pour the cream cheese filling over the pesto and spread it evenly with the small offset spatula.

We can now roll up our sponge as tightly as possible to get a beautiful roulade.

To get the roulade nice and tight, use a baking tray to help.

To do this, fold the baking paper over the roulade, hold the baking paper firmly with one hand, then with the other hand push the roulade with the tray as shown in the second photo below.

Be careful not to push too hard to avoid cracking the sponge. ;-)

We will now decorate our roulade with the 70gr of cream cheese filling set aside earlier.

In a piping bag, place a 10 mm star nozzle and fill the bag with the filling.

Pipe some pretty little rosettes on top of the roulade.

In another piping bag, add a little pesto.

Cut the tip of the bag with scissors (making a very small opening) and pipe a few small dots of pesto on the cream cheese.

After this step, you will have a little pesto left over. Keep it for another recipe or use it for a pasta dish — it's delicious. It will keep for about 1 month in the fridge in a sealed glass jar. ;-)

Add a few pine nuts to finish the decoration.

And there you have it, a beautiful wild garlic roulade.

This recipe will be perfect for your aperitifs, as a starter or as a light dinner, served with a small salad.

The roulade keeps for 2 days in the fridge, well wrapped.

I hope you enjoy this recipe — in any case, our whole team here approved it. ;-)

I wish you a lovely Sunday and a wonderful start to spring!

Sophie

P.S.: All the equipment used can be found at the bottom of the recipe.