How to turn Preserved Lemons and Labneh into a delicious twist on Lemon Swiss Roll

A recipe for Lemon Swiss Roll that is just that little bit different yet equally if not more delicious!

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I already confessed to how much I love Labneh, including using it in baked goods and desserts. So it only made sense to also share a recipe of mine using Labneh! 

The idea for this Preserved Lemon and Labneh Swiss Roll had been on my mind for a couple of years at least. But this time two years ago I was heavily pregnant with my son and battling Covid in the midst of a heatwave - while also desperately trying to finish some home renovations before the little mister’s arrival. Baking experiments were very much the last thing on my mind. And last summer I was still deep in the throes of sleep deprivation painfully familiar to all new parents. Now that the little one is finally sleeping through the night consistently I feel like a whole new person and finally got around to testing the recipe and writing it up for you!

Growing up in Germany, Zitronenrolle was a common feature of a Kaffeetafel - i.e. the generous spread of different kinds of homemade cakes you might be lucky enough to encounter if a German invites you over for Kaffee and Kuchen. Zitronenrolle is basically a lemony Swiss Roll cake - although the ratios of filling to cake tend to skew more heavily in favour of the filling. In short, you have a beautifully soft and fluffy sponge cake rolled around a generous amount of a light and airy lemon-flavoured filling. And as a finishing touch, the whole thing gets a light dusting of icing sugar. Traditionally the filling is made with whipped cream and gelatine (to stabilize the filling), but you increasingly see variations with a mix of whipped cream and other types of dairy, such as yoghurt for example. 

While a cake filled to the brim with whipped cream may not sound like it, Zitronenrolle somehow always felt like the lighter choice - I suspect because the lemon juice and zest in the filling cut through the whipped cream’s richness. For my version of Zitronenrolle I have opted for a couple of changes from the original:

• First, the whipped cream gets cut with some homemade labneh. This makes the filling a little bit denser but the extra acidity from the labneh gives the filling delicious cheesecake like vibes. 

• And then we amp up the lemon flavour by adding finely chopped preserved lemon. Now, preserved lemons are of course very salty. But if you discard the pulp and use the rind only, the preserved lemon adds no more salt to the filling than a generous pinch of salt would do - and we all know how desserts should be properly seasoned just like savoury dishes and how salt can help balance flavours. What you do get from adding the chopped preserved lemon peel are little lemon forward nuggets which both add some texture to the creamy filling but also dial up the lemon flavour even further. In short, it is delicious and if you have a jar of preserved lemons lurking at the back of your fridge, I would urge you to give this a try! 

And yes, preparing a Swiss Roll can be daunting. First, there is the sponge to prepare which can feel stressful. No one wants to go to the lengths of making a homemade cake only to end up with a flat sponge from having accidentally deflated the batter during mixing. Or, even worse, rolling up your Swiss Roll only for the sponge to start cracking all over! (Less of an issue if you are making a Yule log where any sins can be covered with frosting but no doubt annoying when making what is essentially a naked cake). And then of course there is the challenging task of rolling up the delicate sponge around the filling so you end up with as round a Swiss Roll as possible with beautiful swirls of sponge and filling. This used to be scary for me as well so let me share a few tricks with you that helped me immensely.

How to achieve Swiss Roll success:

1. Make sure your sponge batter is fully aerated. What I mean by this is that you mix your eggs and sugar until beautifully thick and pale - this should take around 10-15 minutes of beating the mixture on high speed.

2. Don’t deflate your sponge batter: Once you have beaten all that air into your sponge mix, you want to make sure you keep as much of that air in your batter as possible. This is easier said than done but the easiest way to avoid this is (i) to sift your flour and baking powder to minimize any lumps (and thus avoid the need for too much mixing) and (ii) to mix gently and just long enough for the flour to be fully mixed into the egg mixture, but not any longer. The way I do this is by scraping all along the rim of the bowl from the bottom to the top with a spatula and then cut through the centre of the bowl in a vertical line, I then turn the bowl by 20-30 degrees and repeat this motion as long as I need to until there is no more visible flour (and make sure you really scrape along the bottom of the bowl as that is where you will often find flour that has not yet been fully mixed in). 

3. Don’t overbake your sponge: an overbaked sponge will be drier, less flexible and thus more prone to cracking. To avoid this, make sure you don’t overbake your sponge. What you are looking for is a sponge that is light brown in colour and that springs back a little bit when you gently press on the surface with your fingertips. (But equally don’t underbake your sponge either - an underbaked sponge has too much moisture and is therefore more prone to stick to the parchment paper or kitchen towel and tear as a result).

4. Roll your sponge while hot then let it cool down complete: this helps avoid cracks. Similarly, carefully unrol your sponge and don’t force it flat - this also helps avoid cracks.

5. Don’t spread your filling all the way to the edge: Leave a rim on both the short and long edges as the filling will spread further once you start rolling up your sponge. 

6. Use parchment paper to help you create a tight spiral and tighten as you go while you roll up your sponge.

7. Also, you can always adjust your spiral afterwards. Similar to trying to create a log of cookie dough for slice and bake cookies where you roll your log of dough in parchment paper and use a dough scraper to tighten the roll to create a perfectly round log of dough, you can do the same with your Swiss Roll and some parchment paper.  

8. Lastly, place your Swiss Roll in the fridge for at least 1h before serving to firm up - this will help the Swiss Roll keep its shape and allow you to cut clean slices. 

Lastly, it is of course perfectly fine for homemade cakes to look homemade and, in this case, for a homemade lemony Swiss Roll to not be perfectly round but more oval, or to have some cracks. It will still taste delicious and will be appreciated by anyone you share it with! 

Preserved Lemon and Labneh Swiss Roll

Notes: This makes a fairly small Swiss Roll - depending on how thick you cut your slices, this should be enough to cut 4-6 generous slices. You can of course always double the amounts and use a regular sized sheet pan to bake your sponge (since the sponge will be similar in thickness, the baking time should be similar, so start checking at the 13 minute mark). In terms of substitutions, if you do not have any labneh to hand, you could also use cream cheese or mascarpone for the filling. Similarly, if you do not have any preserved lemons, you could simply double the amount of lemon zest.

Ingredients

For the sponge

2 eggs
60g plus 2 tbsp sugar 
40g flour
20g cornstarch
¼ tsp baking powder

For the filling 

1.5 sheets gelatine
Zest and juice of 1/2 lemon,
½ preserved lemon, pulp removed and very finely chopped
100ml cream
100g labneh
35g sugar

Directions

Start by preparing the sponge. Preheat the oven to 200 degree Celsius / 180 degree Celsius fan and line a 20x30cm sheet pan with parchment paper.

In a bowl whisk the eggs with the sugar until tripled in volume, thick and pale in colour, this will take ca. 15 minutes. Sift together the flour, cornstarch and baking powder and carefully fold into the egg mixture, trying not to deflate the mixture too much. 

Pour the batter onto the prepared sheet pan and use an offset spatula to gently spread the batter evenly across. Bake the sponge for ca. 12-13 minutes or until a light golden brown in colour and the sponge bounces back if gently pressed with your fingertips.

While the sponge is baking, spread out a kitchen towel slightly bigger than the sheet pan, and scatter with the remaining sugar.

Use a small sharp knife to carefully loosen the sponge from the edges of the sheet pan then turn the sponge onto the prepared kitchen towel with the parchment paper facing upwards. Carefully remove the parchment paper from the sponge (if it seems stuck, use a pastry brush dipped in water to wet the parchment - that should allow you to remove the parchment paper more easily). Starting from one of the short edges, carefully roll the sponge (together with the kitchen towel) into a log while still hot. Set aside to cool completely. 

While the sponge is cooling down, prepare the preserved lemon and labneh filling.

Soak the gelatine in a bowl with cold water for 5 mins. While the gelatine is soaking, beat the labneh, cream, sugar, lemon zest and chopped preserved lemon until fairly stiff. Remove the gelatine from the bowl and squeeze out any excess water. Add it to a small saucepan together with the lemon juice. Heat just long enough for the gelatine to dissolve completely, then stir into the preserved lemon and labneh whipped cream. Beat the preserved lemon and labneh whipped cream for a few more seconds until stiff. Place in the fridge for about 30 minutes or until the mixture starts to set. 

Carefully unroll the sponge but avoid flattening it with your hands as that might make the sponge crack. Spread the preserved lemon and labneh whipped cream over the sponge, leaving a 4 cm border at one of the shorter edges. Carefully roll the sponge into a tight log and place in the fridge for at least 1h to firm up. 

Dust with icing sugar before serving.