Meringue Roulade
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new on bbs
Meringue Roulade with Whipped Ganache
Vanilla meringue roulade with a crisp exterior and a soft, marshmallow interior. Layered with whipped dark chocolate ganache, chantilly cream, and fresh berries.
summer’s here
Lemon Ice Cream
Creamy custard-based ice cream made with heaps of lemon zest and freshly juiced lemons for a super lemony, tart flavor.
Raspberry Sorbet
Three ingredients, 10 minutes and a food processor are all you need to make this exquisite raspberry sorbet. It freezes soft so it’s always scoop-able, and it absolutely bursts with a sharp, fresh berry flavor.
S’mores Brownies
Graham cracker crust, a thick layer of fudgy brownie and a homemade bouncy vanilla bean marshmallow on top.
attn.
Mason Jar Ice Cream
Most of you know this one by now: it’s been on the blog for six years now, lots of people have found me through it and had a moment on tiktok (16m views!). It is kinda low on ratings considering so if you’ve made it, please leave a review! Reviews help so much. And if you haven’t made it, try it! It’s simple and so easy.
From the (early) June Archives
2025: No Bake Pistachio Cheesecake (make your own pistachio paste for it)
2024: Simple Strawberry Cake (ebc layered with homemade strawberry jam)
2023: Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
2022: Brownie Baked Alaska (you need a glass bowl that matches a cake pan to make the most epic summer dessert)
2021: No Bake Cheesecake with Chocolate Ganache & Oreo Crust
2020: Small Batch Monster Cookies (just one yolk ;-)
baker’s review
“the texture is phenomenal! equal parts fluffy, moist, and dense. it rose beautifully in the oven and got that gorgeous craggly texture on top. I used olive oil and loved the flavor. also not too sweet! will definitely be making again. thanks for such a great recipe 🙂” Nicoletta on Chocolate Olive Oil Bundt Cake.
reads
“For [Robert] Rice, the ICE occupation felt eerily familiar to the uprisings after the 2020 police killing of George Floyd, when Pow Wow Grounds also served as a safe haven. In both instances, AIM mobilized to monitor the area. This time around, though, they weren’t just safeguarding the neighborhood’s Native-owned businesses; they were also safeguarding anyone against ICE harassment, regardless of their background... “We don’t look at our undocumented relatives to the south as ‘illegal aliens,’” says Crow Bellecourt (Bad River Chippewa), who is the executive director of the nonprofit Indigenous Protector Movement (IPM) and is following in the footsteps of his father, late AIM cofounder Clyde Bellecourt. “When we heard about the ICE surge coming, we knew that our community was going to be a target. We recognized that we needed to step up and watch out for our neighbors. That translated to patrolling dawn to dusk, organizing rallies, and coordinating mutual-aid efforts in collaboration with Pow Wow Grounds and NACDI. Bellecourt was also often spotted performing prayer songs during protester gatherings in the Pow Wow Grounds parking lot, while inside, activists warmed themselves with soup and fry bread.” How Fry Bread Fed Minneapolis During the ICE Raids, Civil Eats.
“A company funded by the CIA, used for predictive policing, mass data fusion, overseas targeting ops, and founded by Jeffrey Epstein’s “great friend,” is now responsible for keeping America’s food “safe.”
This is the company whose stated mission is “accelerating kill chains” in wars in Ukraine, Gaza, Lebanon and Iran. Palantir will now be getting data from every farm: what they’ve planted, why they planted it, how much was produced per acre, etc. All of this information will be transferred from the USDA directly to Palantir, which will have influence over how farming decisions are made going forward.” Palantir Just Took Over America’s Food Supply, Books Behind Borders.
“Pausing here to acknowledge that liking sprinkles does not make one toxic or bad by any stretch (I will show you my own sprinkle cabinet as evidence). It’s important to recognize, though, that the use of any one thing in excess (especially within the framework of capitalism) flattens the rich complexities that thing once held.4 Basically, too much of a good thing can be a bad thing. We do this as humans (and especially Americans), all the time. We did it with truffles, lemon pepper, pumpkin spice, the air-fryer, matcha, burrata, Dubai chocolate, and, if you remember the earlier days of Instagram, we already did it with Funfetti and rainbow-hued things that didn’t need to be oversaturated (i.e. bagels).” A Little Sociocultural History of Sprinkles, Penknife.
notes
In a previous letter I told you how much grief the meringue roulade was giving me - I don’t want that to discourage you from trying out my latest. I was having trouble with a cocoa based roulade and I think the that was messing with the chemistry of the meringue, because once I figured out that my oven was a big part of the problem, I was able to successfully make a vanilla meringue roulade reliably no matter how many times I tested (there was even once when the sugar wasn’t fully dissolved and it wasn’t the greatest roulade but it still didn’t collapse the way the cocoa had been). Before you make it, I want to give you some bts tips and more confidence going into the recipe:
I found I could make it either via the french method (but with warming the sugar) or swiss (warming the egg whites and sugar over a double boiler - method here). You can choose whichever you prefer.
If I waited too long to start adding the sugar to the meringue, like minutes past the egg whites being fully frothy, I got a weird meringue texture: it looked kind of like those old fashioned lemon meringue pies where the topping was more foamy than creamy. I hated it. So while I do want you to make sure the egg whites are frothy, don’t keep whipping before adding the sugar. Stop right there and get to sugaring.
It’s OK if the sugar, while heating in the oven, has started to brown. It’s actually quite nice and gives it more flavor. Remember Stella Parks’ toasted sugar? That’s what this is.
Your sugar should be fully dissolved before baking it, you can check this by rubbing the meringue between your fingers. If it hasn’t, keep whipping. If there’s just a little left and you’re beyond your whipping capacity, pray and hope it turns out ok (it might).
When spreading the meringue into the pan try to make sure it’s even: those parts where the meringue is thinner are exactly where it is likely to crack out of the oven.
You need a secondary oven thermometer. I say this all the time and I don’t think people take it seriously but I wish they would! Ovens lie and will screw up your bake every time unless you know exactly what’s going on in there and make any necessary adjustments.
Keep an eye on it, we don’t want the meringue to brown. I stop mine baking around 22 minutes. The longer it bakes the more likely it will crack. Also if you wait too long out of the oven to roll it up, it increases the chances of it cracking. Some cracks are ok, some can be so big you simply won’t be able to coil it. If that happens, I might just chop it up, throw all the fillings on top and call it an ✨eton mess✨.
I have a thick(ish) layer of ganache in the middle of this roulade which makes it quite fat and can be err fun, to roll up (it’s damn delicious though). To help with this I’ve asked you to make less whipped cream but if you preferred less ganache, halve that instead (it will cool quicker so keep an eye on it).
If you don’t want to add the berries, use mini chocolate chips or nuts instead.
If you aren’t into the idea of chocolate ganache with the roulade, you might want to spread a fruit curd. Another option is lemon pudding or even a pistachio spread with pistachio whipped cream. One last idea: meringue roulade, chocolate ganache and some chopped up graham crackers so it’s “s’moresy”.
Next week I have another meringue based recipe, so brush up on the science behind! Here’s a meringue guide I put together last year.
warmly,
sam