EASY Gluten Free Arctic Roll Recipe

My gluten free Arctic Roll recipe is easy, fun to make and seriously tasty. Fluffy sponge, smothered in jam and wrapped around your favourite ice cream… can’t go wrong!

Its dairy free too if you use dairy free ice-cream!!

This “Gluten Free Arctic Roll” recipe takes me right back to the swim school dinners I had when I was 10. When did you last eat artic roll?!! Brings back memories doesn’t it? Well, now you can make a gluten free version 🙂

I love the simplicity of the ingredients with this recipe – gluten free flour, eggs, sugar, jam and ice cream. That really is it.

Top tips for the perfect Gluten Free Arctic Roll

There’s LOADS of pics and tips in the instructions to help you but honestly, it’s much easier than you’d expect.

These are the most important 5 things to watch out for to make the neatest, yummiest Swiss roll

1. DON’T use too much ice-cream!!! I have tried to do this, thinking ‘more ice cream = better’ but that is not the case! If you go over 750ml, the sponge won’t wrap around the ice cream and it’ll just tear and look messy.
2. Use good quality baking paper to make it easier to neatly remove the sponge from the tray.
3. Set a timer for 5 mins when you’re whisking the sponge ingredients. Any less than this and your sponge will be a little flat, but whisk for 5 mins and you’ll have yourself the lightest, fluffiest sponge.
4. DON’T overcook the sponge because it makes the sponge more prone to cracking once it’s rolled. 10-12 mins is perfect. If you’re one of those people that takes a cake out of the oven and things “hmm it might need a few more minutes”…. DON’T!!!
5. Flip the sponge out from the baking tray, remove the baking paper and roll up as soon as its out of the oven. The longer you leave it, the more chance you have of your sponge cracking.

Please don’t be put off by the length of recipe – you really do just have to make a quick sponge, make an ice cream log and put the two together. It looks long because I’ve included 233435 tips and photos to make sure yours is neat and perfect the first time 😉

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Gluten Free Arctic Roll

2 things you expect you cant eat on a gluten, dairy free diet – a fluffy, seriously light sponge with a creamy ice cream centre. Roll on the summer!! 

**I use a 23 x 33cm roasting/baking/Swiss roll tray that is at least 3cm deep**

Prep Time30 minutes mins

Cook Time10 minutes mins

Freeze time1 hour hr

Total Time40 minutes mins

Servings: 1 gigantic artic roll – probably serves 10

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: english

Keyword: ice cream

Ingredients

• 4 Medium eggs
• 100 grams caster sugar + a few extra tbsp for sprinkling on the outside
• 100 grams gluten free self raising flour

The Middle

• 100 grams strawberry jam - or any jam/spread you like
• 750 ml ice cream of your choice - I use Swedish Glace Soya Vanilla Soft Scoop (really easy to shape)

Instructions

Ice Cream

• Place a large piece of cling film on the work surface and add a line of ice cream scoops down the middle

  >Your line of scoops should be roughly the same length as the short side of the tray you are going to cook your sponge in, like the picture.
  
• Use your hands to mush it together into a *very* rough cylinder, like the picture.
  
• Wash your hands and then wrap the cylinder in the cling film, twisting the ends so its tightly encased (like the ends of a string of sausages!)
• Roll back and forward with your hands to get a slightly neater cylinder.

  >You’ll have another chance to make it neater in a bit so don’t worry if it’s not absolutely perfect!
  
• Freeze for at least 1hr until solid.

Sponge

• Preheat the oven to 170oc (fan).
• Line at 23 x 33cm swiss roll tin with baking paper (or any other baking tray/roasting dish of similar size – ideally, it just needs to be at least 3m deep)
• Crack the eggs into a large mixing bowl. Add the sugar and whisk together until light and fluffy and very thick,

  >You're looking for the consistency almost as thick as a McDonald's milkshake! It should expand by about 3-4x, like my picture.

  >Set a timer! With an electric hand whisk on full speed, it takes me 5 minutes precisely. With something like a big KitchenAid, I would set the timer to 4 mins 30. Don't whisk for any less!!!
  
• Add the flour and whisk again for no more than 10 seconds, until just combined. Pour into the baking tray.

  >Make sure you whisk right to the bottom as the flour all sinks there.
  
• Bake the sponge for 10-12 mins or until its just starting to brown and if you lightly press the top of the sponge, it gently springs back.

  >DO NOT overbake. If you think its only just cooked, thats fine!! It'll keep cooking once its out of the oven. If you overcook it, it'll be diffcult to roll up.
• Whilst that's baking, prepare the following:

  1. Place a sheet of baking paper (a bit bigger than the size of the baking tin) onto your work surface.

  2. Place something on the corners to hold it down if it keeps rolling up!

  3. Sprinkle over a generous amount of caster sugar all over the baking paper. I use about 3 heaped tbsp – if it doubt, add more! Pic to show you what mine looks like.
  
• Once the sponge is cooked, remove from the oven and quickly peel off the baking paper stuck to the sides of the cake.

  Then, flip the sponge onto the sugared baking paper.

  >The key is to be quick and confident with it!
• Loosely roll up from the short side so you have a swiss roll, like this.
  
• Leave it rolled up to cool COMPLETELY (takes at least 30mins, depending on where it is).

  >The reason we roll up the sponge whilst its cooling is because it prevents the cake from cracking at the next stage. To keep it rolled up whilst its cooling, I rest mine against the back of the worktop.
  

Construction

• Once cool, unroll and spread evenly with loads of jam.

  >You might want to put your jam in a bowl and give it a good mix with a spoon before spreading it (it’ll soften it up and make it easier to work with)
• Take the ice cream out the freezer and whilst it’s still in the cling film, quickly roll it again on the side to make it as cylindrical as possible.

  >Now it’s completely frozen, this should be easy to do 🙂
• Unwrap the ice cream and place it at one end of the sponge.

  >The join may overlap a bit OR not quite meet depending on the size of baking tray you used vs size of ice cream- don't worry either way!! Don't try to correct that, it'll just get messy and you risk tearing your sponge. Once its frozen, it'll hold together perfectly.

  >Also don't worry about making the ends neat at this stage – we can cut off the messy bits after the next step…
• Place your artic roll on a plate/in a container and into the freezer, join down, for at least 30 mins or until the sponge has totally frozen.

  >I don’t wrap it in cling film/anything at this stage but you can if you’d like to. Just be delicate as the sponge will be soft and prone to tearing.
• When you want to eat, remove from the freezer, unwrap, chop of the ends off so its nice and neat, slice off your slice, leave to defrost for 5 mins and then enjoy!!!

Notes

Serving suggestion: Ideally leave you slice of arctic roll for 5 mins to defrost slightly before eating

Storage: Once frozen, I wrap mine in cling film and keep it in the freezer. It’ll keep for weeks… although it never does in this house!!!

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