Ah, Arctic roll … a proper nostalgic taste of Britain! I never tried a homemade one as a kid; they seemed to be the buzz thing in the supermarkets and my nan would buy them frequently – essentially they are ice cream Swiss rolls. Well I’ve found a way to make homemade Arctic roll easy wherever you are in the world by using your favourite ice cream! The recipe below will make two rolls so you could use two different flavours of ice cream. I’ve given instructions for the classic Arctic roll combo of vanilla ice cream with strawberry jam.
READY IN 20 MINUTES, PLUS COOLING AND FREEZING TIME
SERVES 12
2 x 500ml cartons of good-quality vanilla ice cream
2 medium eggs
40 caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
1 tsp vanilla extract
40g plain flour
4 tbsp strawberry jam
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/350°F/Gas mark 4 and line a 33 x 23cm Swiss roll tin with baking parchment.
2. Carefully remove the packaging from the tubs of ice cream so that you are left with two whole cylinders of ice cream. Wrap each in one layer of cling film and place in the freezer for the time being. Once wrapped in the cling film, you can shape the cylinder so it is more even, if it is wider at one end than the other.
3. Put the eggs and sugar into a bowl and beat using a hand-held electric whisk for a good 5 minutes. The mixture should go lighter in colour and double in size with bubbles appearing. Add the vanilla extract and plain flour, and fold through with a spoon until combined.
4. Pour into the prepared tin, making sure the mixture is evenly spread along the tin and is not more than 1cm thick (you may have a little mixture left over). Cut a sheet of baking parchment just larger than the sponge area and sprinkle with caster sugar, putting it to one side. Bake the mixture in the oven for 6 minutes until the sponge has risen slightly and baked through but is still pale in colour. Remove from the oven and carefully turn the sponge out on to the sugar-coated paper. Remove the tin but leave the bottom sheet of baking parchment on the sponge.
5. Roll up the sponge from one short end to the other like a carpet, with both pieces of baking parchment still in place. Leave to cool fully rolled up – this makes rolling easier later on.
6. Once fully cooled, carefully unravel the sponge and remove the paper backing. Take an ice cream cylinder out of the freezer and lay it next to one corner of the sponge; there should be room for two cylinders, so cut a line right the way down the sponge to create two long sponge strips, using the ice cream cylinder as a template. Put the cylinder back in the freezer for the time being.
7. Spread both sponge strips with a thin layer of strawberry jam. Working with one ice cream cylinder at a time, remove the cling film and sit the ice cream at one end of the sponge. Steadily roll up to cover the ice cream in the sponge; when it looks like the sponge will overlap, cut away the excess sponge (unlike a Swiss roll there is just one layer of sponge here). Wrap the whole Arctic roll in cling film before placing in the freezer until ready to serve. Repeat with the other sponge strip and cylinder of ice cream.
VIRGIN TIP
Adding a little cocoa powder to the sponge, and then spreading it with a chocolate spread and rolling it round chocolate ice cream is a very naughty thing to try indeed – maybe you should give it a go!