Keto/Low Carb Chocolate Swiss Roll

A very traditional holiday dessert made keto, the yule log. Pretty easy but a very impressive dessert for your holiday table, plus it's absolutely delicious! Soft, light and chocolatey cake filled with a lightly sweetened keto whipped cream and covered in a decadent chocolate ganache.

This swiss roll recipe is one taken straight out of my pastry text book from college. This recipe is made using the separated egg sponge method. This is where you separate the eggs and whip both the egg whites and yolks with equal amounts of sugar. The egg yolks until thick and pale, the egg whites until stiff and glossy peaks. I used granular monkfruit/erythritol for the sugar in this recipe. You can also use allulose but it makes the cake even more soft which makes it hard to roll without breaking apart. It also isn't as sweet in the same quantity as the granular monkfruit. So if you like less sweet keto desserts try the allulose, you can just cut the sponge cake into strips and layer it with the mousse and it would be delicious.

Adding cocoa powder to desserts creates many problems because it is super drying. So I referred to my pastry book and it gave gram measurements of cocoa powder and water to add to the original sponge cake recipe. But because our coconut flour is so much more absorbent than regular flour the egg yolk mixture got too thick to fold egg whites into it well enough. To combat that we have to sacrifice some of the egg whites to thin out the batter before we fold in the rest of the egg whites. This allows us to keep as much air incorporated when folding in the rest of the egg whites. Because we were adding water I thought why not add some instant espresso powder to the water. It is optional but bumps up the flavor of the cake.

I did provide metric measurement for everything but it is really hard to accurately measure 22 g of water. And even when I use tablespoons to measure dry ingredients, I always use a scale to make sure I'm getting the correct grams and I very rarely get the exact right grams. So I always suggest if you want the best product to weigh all the ingredients on a food scale, it's much quicker and accurate and they aren't very expensive.

Flavorings are completely up to you, in the video recipe I added a little vanilla extract but I prefer peppermint extract because I love chocolate peppermint. Can use many different flavoring like almond extract, coffee, strawberry, orange etc. Pretty much any flavor you like with chocolate, you can add.

The only other ingredient in the original swiss roll recipe was cake flour. I figured out the perfect ratio to get a super soft keto sponge cake, with only 3 ingredients. I prefer unflavored Isopure whey protein isolate for the protein powder. I'm sure other brands will work though, I would just make sure there aren't too many other added ingredients. I'm sure a chocolate whey protein isolate would be good too but they have added sweeteners so I would cut back on the amount of sweetener you use. Then just a tiny bit of coconut flour and xanthan gum to give some structure.

The filling for this swiss roll is something else that you can play around with. Any keto mousse recipe would work as a filling. Mmmm my peanut butter mousse would be delicious in this roll (https://www.ketoupgrade.info/post/creamy-keto-peanut-butter-mousse ) but I love chocolate peanut butter desserts. Same deal with the frosting, I chose a ganache frosting but any keto frosting would work. I just prefer frostings that you don't have to use a bunch of powdered sweetener. Ganache is very simple, it's just equal parts by weight of scalded heavy cream and keto chocolate chips. Can heat the cream in the microwave or on the stove top, pour over the chips and let sit for 5 minutes which is very important, otherwise all the chips won't melt and combine. Then just slowly whisk the center until it starts to combine then increase the size of the circles until it is fully combined. Let sit and cool, stirring every once in a while until it is thick enough to spread on the roll. You can also let the ganache harden at room temp and whip until light and fluffy and use that to frost the log. Can dust with powdered sweetener to mimic snow also!!

Whipped ganache log

I cut a chunk off the end at a diagonal to add a little branch off the main log, this is just the way I always made it and it looks pretty cool when frosted like a log. I unfortunately did not have the time to figure out keto decorations. Normally it is decorated with meringue mushrooms, I made them in school but have not tried making a keto version yet. But you could dust with powdered sweetener to look like snow. Also saw some pictures with whole raw cranberries and rosemary to look like holly as a decoration. I recommend making this the day before or day of it is the best when consumed within 5 days. I wouldn't recommend freezing this dessert just because the filling may get weepy when thawed. You can freeze the cake for a layer cake down the road. Just wrap well and freeze in the pan or cut into layers freeze flat then stack and wrap.

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Yule Log Recipe

5 Room temperature egg whites

48 g Granular Monkfruit Sweetener (1/4 Cup)

5 Room temperature egg yolks

48 g Granular Monkfruit Sweetener (1/4 Cup)

1 tsp. Vanilla extract (or any flavor, I love peppermint)

22 g Water (1 1/2 Tbs.)

1 tsp. Instant espresso (optional)

15 g Cocoa powder (2 1/2 Tbs.)

38 g Unflavored whey protein isolate (isopure is my favorite brand)(about 6 Tbs.)

15 g Coconut Flour (2 Tbs.)

1/2 tsp. Xanthan Gum

1/4 tsp. Salt

Filling:

8 oz. Heavy cream (1 Cup)

15 g Powdered sweetener(2 Tbs. to taste)

20 drops liquid stevia (optional, to taste)

1 tsp. Vanilla extract

1 tsp. Gelatin

1 Tbs. Cold water

Ganache Frosting:

4 oz. Heavy Whipping Cream

4 oz. Keto Semi-sweet chocolate chips (can use any kind you want)

10 drops liquid stevia (optional, to taste)

Instructions:

1. Pull out eggs and place in warm water (a little warmer than body temp), preheat oven to 400 degrees and line a cookie sheet, all the way up the sides is best, with parchment paper (similar size around 15x10 inches) coat the parchment paper with non stick spray and any sides that aren't covered by parchment, set aside

2. Measure, sift and whisk the dry ingredients together in a small bowl and measure the water, add the instant espresso powder if using and measure the vanilla extract, have everything ready because mixing goes fast

3. Separate out the egg yolks and whites into 2 separate medium size bowls and have sweetener ready in two small bowls

4. Beat egg whites until foamy then sprinkle in 48 g of sweetener gradually while whisking until stiff glossy peaks form, set aside

5. Beat egg yolks and gradually add the other 48 g of sweetener, beat until it is thick and pale in color, beat in espresso and vanilla extract, then beat in the dry ingredient into the egg yolk mixture until fully combined, scraping down several times

6. To lighten the mixture, beat a 1/4 of the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture then fold in 1/3 of the remaining egg whites at a time, being more gentle with the last third to keep as much air in the batter as possible

7. Spread out evenly onto the parchment lined baking sheet with an offset spatula being careful to not knock out too much air, shake to even out further

8. Bake for 7-9 minutes, turning halfway threw, the cake should be firm and bounce back when gently pressed. While cake is baking get the filling ingredients measured out

9. Place cake on a baking rack to cool for a few minutes then make sure cake isn't stuck anywhere where you might not have parchment and slide onto cooling rack, make the filling

10. Start by blooming the gelatin over the cold water, once bloomed microwave at 50% power for 30 seconds until fully melted

11. Whip the heavy cream with the powdered sweetener, vanilla and liquid stevia, if using, until soft peaks form, take a small spoonful and mix into the slightly cooled gelatin then add back into the whip cream while whipping, once combined, continue whipping until stiff peaks form

12. When the cake is just slightly warm to the touch, spread the filling over the sponge cake, leaving an inch at the end bare

13. Using the parchment paper, slowly roll the cake putting a little pressure as you go, once almost to the end, unstick the end of the cake and pull the whole roll to the center of the parchment paper, keep rolling to the end of the cake keeping the end on the bottom of the roll, using the parchment paper over the roll, squeeze to tighten the roll

14. Refrigerate in parchment paper on a sheet tray while you prepare the ganache

15. Weigh out the heavy cream and chocolate chips, add liquid stevia to the chips, if using, heat the heavy cream until steaming then pour over the chocolate chips, let sit for 5 minutes, then slowly whisk in the center until it starts to come together than expand the circles to combine all the cream and chocolate

16. Let sit, stirring occasionally until it is a spreadable consistency

17. Once spreadable, cut a chunk at a diagonal off the end and place on the side of the full log on a serving platter, and coat evenly with the ganache around all sides, swipe lines in the top and sides to mimic bark, let chill for about an hour before serving

Macros 1/10

238 Calories

20.7 g Fat

7 g Total Carbs

5.1 g Fiber

1.9 g Net Carbs

9.2 g Protein