Squidgy chocolate sponge swirled with vanilla mascarpone cream and covered with chocolate ganache. Finished with a drizzle of white chocolate, this gluten free chocolate swiss roll is one heavenly dessert!

It’s also a dessert that no-one can tell is gluten free, so you can make it for everyone to share and enjoy.

I set out to create this dessert to be like a giant Cadbury Mini Roll, and it really delivers :). Actually, it’s much nicer than those mini rolls! I’ve used Cadbury chocolate for the coating, to give it that yummy taste.

This gluten free chocolate swiss roll is quite similar to my Salted Caramel Yule Log (a great one to try at Christmas time), but without the salted caramel and instead with lashings of gorgeous chocolate ganache and white chocolate to finish. So if you’ve tried and enjoyed that bake, I guarantee you’ll love this one too.

gluten free chocolate swiss roll recipe

Which Cadbury Dairy Milk is Gluten Free?

While all Cadbury Dairy Milk if gluten free not all varieties are suitable for coeliacs. I found that Cadbury Giant Buttons are coeliac friendly (here in the UK), as they do not have a may contain warning. Please note that some other varieties of Cadbury Dairy Milk do so be careful to check the label.

If you don’t have Cadbury Dairy Milk and are based outside of the UK, any milk chocolate will work nicely. In fact using a Belgian cooking chocolate would be gorgeous on this. I am quite partial to Callebaut and find it brilliant for making chocolate ganache.

Prefer dark chocolate? Then you’ll find some instructions in the “notes” section of the recipe on how to adjust the quantities to make a dark chocolate ganache. Dark chocolate needs extra cream to help ensure it coats the chocolate swiss roll beautifully, then it’ll give a lovely shiny finish to the dessert.

I Can’t Find Any Mascarpone – Help!

A good substitute for mascarpone in this recipe is cream cheese. It has a similar consistency and you’ll have a lovely cheesecake-cream style filling.

Can I Make This Gluten Free Chocolate Swiss Roll Ahead of Time?

Yes this is a great pud to make the day before, if you need to. Similar assemble per the recipe then store in the fridge until you are ready to serve. It needs to be kept chilled because of the mascarpone cream filling.

Gluten Free Chocolate Swiss Roll Recipe

This recipe should serve 6 people…although my husband could easily eat the whole thing by himself with a fork. It’s good so be warned people may be asking for seconds!

You’ll find a full method below, plus lots of photos to help guide you through the recipe. Feel free to email me any questions or comments you might have. You can contact me at laura@mygfguide.com or message me on Instagram/Facebook @myglutenfreeguide. I love seeing your home creations too so please do tag me on social media if you make these.

Lastly, if you enjoy this chocolate swiss roll, I would be really grateful if you could leave a star rating or review on the recipe card below. Thank you!

Laura xxx

Gluten Free Chocolate Swiss Roll
Yield: Serves 6

Gluten Free Chocolate Swiss Roll

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 8 minutes
Additional Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour 28 minutes

Squidgy chocolate sponge swirled with vanilla mascarpone cream and covered with chocolate ganache. Finish with a drizzle of white chocolate and you'll be in gluten free dessert heaven!

Ingredients

For the chocolate sponge:

  • 4 large eggs
  • 80g caster sugar
  • 20ml milk
  • 45g cocoa powder (ensure gluten free)
  • 30g gluten free self raising flour (this is ideal, but if you don't have it gluten free plain flour will work well too, as we are only using a small quantity)
  • 0.25 tsp xanthan gum

For the mascarpone cream filling:

  • 250g mascarpone
  • 125g icing sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla bean paste or vanilla essence
  • 125ml double cream

For the ganache coating:

  • 220g milk chocolate (I used Cadbury giant buttons) - if you want to use dark chocolate see the notes section below
  • 100ml double cream

To finish:

  • 50g white chocolate

Instructions

  1. First, let's make the sponge. Preheat the oven to 180C (fan). Separate the eggs, place the whites in a large mixing bowl and the yolks in a second mixing bowl. Set the yolks aside.
  2. Use an electric hand whisk to beat the whites until thick and foamy. Add the caster sugar to the beaten egg whites and whisk again for 3-5 minutes until glossy and you have soft peaks.
  3. Beat the yolks together with the milk, until frothy, which will take about 2 minutes. Then add the frothy yolks to the egg whites and sugar before whisking everything together for a couple of minutes.
  4. Sift the cocoa, flour and xanthan gum over the frothy mixture. Now use a spatula to fold the dry ingredients into the egg mixture, without knocking out all the air. Fold and scrape at a slow pace, until fully incorporated. The mixture should still be quite mousse-like and full of air.
  5. Line a rectangular baking tray (mine is 32cm x 22cm) with greaseproof paper, so that the base and sides are covered. Pour the cake mixture onto the tray and gently spread to the sides and corners using a small palette knife. Bake at 180C for 8-10 minutes, until cooked through - it cooks very quickly. I find 8 minutes is ideal for me, and it's best to err on the side of caution as an overbaked sponge is more likely to crack during rolling.
  6. Allow to cool for 2 minutes, then lift out of the tray and onto your work surface. Ease the baking paper away from the sides, to loosen, then on one of the shorter sides of the sponge, fold the excess baking paper over the end of the sponge. This will stop it sticking to itself when rolled. Time to roll! Start from the short end and roll the sponge into a log shape, so the baking paper is on outside of the sponge. Set aside to cool completely, still rolled up (see image below).
  7. Once the sponge has cooled, make the chocolate ganache frosting. Finely chop the chocolate and place in a heatproof mixing bowl. Pour the cream over it and then place into the microwave for 1 minute. Then whisk with a fork until you have a lovely, glossy ganache (if you have any lumps of chocolate, give it another 30 seconds in the microwave until they have melted). Note - if your ganache splits or goes hard, do not panic! It is easily rescue - simply add a few drops of boiling water to the ganache, stir and repeat until you have the lovely smooth and glossy ganache you need. Set the ganache aside while you fill and assemble the roll.
  8. For the filling, simply mix the mascarpone, icing sugar and vanilla with whisk until smooth. Now add the double cream and beat for about a minute until you have a thick, stiff cream mixture.
  9. Carefully unroll the cooled sponge, then spread the mascarpone cream all over the inside. Now roll the sponge up quite tightly, until you have a lovely swirl of chocolate sponge and cream. Trim the edges to neaten slightly - then the perk of being the cook is that you get to eat these bits as a treat :).
  10. Place the swiss roll on a wire cooling rack over a piece of baking paper/plate/tray (to catch the ganache run off). Now pour the chocolate ganache all over the swiss roll, ensuring you coat the swiss roll fully. Wait for a minute to let most of the excess drip off, then carefully transfer the roll to a serving plate (I use a palette knife to do this). Now pop it into the fridge to set the ganache for 30 minutes.
  11. To finish the roll, melt the white chocolate (I do this in the microwave, in 30 second blasts) and use a spoon or small piping bag to drizzle the molten white chocolate across the chilled swiss roll. To get a nice drizzle, I let the white chocolate cool a little after I have melted it, then use a small piping bag to quickly zig zag back and forth along the length of the roll.
  12. The white chocolate will set pretty quickly on the cool ganache, so you can either serve straight away or store it in the fridge until you are ready to enjoy it later.

If you are making this chocolate swiss roll in advance, store it in the fridge to keep it chilled. Same with any leftovers, they should be refrigerated to keep them at their best.

Notes

To coat with dark chocolate ganache, you'll need a little extra cream to keep it soft. I would recommend 180g dark chocolate and 140ml double cream.

egg whites and frothy yolks
whipped eggs, yolks and sugar
batter for chocolate swiss roll
batter for chocolate swiss roll on tray
baked sponge for chocolate swiss roll
mascarpone cream on chocolate swiss roll
naked chocolate swiss roll
ganache on chocolate swiss roll
how to cover a chocolate swiss roll
gluten free chocolate swiss roll

I hope you enjoy this gluten free chocolate swiss roll recipe! For more gluten free baking inspo, why not try some of my other recipes or bookmark some for later:

Happy baking! Laura xxx