All together now: all of the cookies made by my mom, me and both grandmas, all on one tray.
ORIGINALLY POSTED DECEMBER 29, 2011
This week I’ve been posting in retrospect about our Christmas Dinner. To me, the best part of any dinner is always the dessert. And like our Christmas Dinner, which is much the same every year, our dessert selection is as well.
First off, there’s the tray of Christmas Cookies. Together with my mom and two grandmothers, we put together a tray of cookies that has about 13 different varieties to choose from. We all have our favorites.
But…we’ve been eating cookies on and off now for two weeks. Well, at least I have. So we have to have another choice also. Enter…the Mocha Roll.
My mom makes the most fabulous frozen dessert called a Mocha Roll.
The Mocha Roll before the first piece has been cut.
This picture looks nice enough, but you truly can’t get a good enough idea of what this dessert really is unless you see it cut into a serving, which you will in a minute, when I post the recipe. However, I first must give tons of thanks to my mom here, because I decided to ask her for the recipe *just* as she was getting ready to leave for a cross-country, day-after-Christmas trip and I’m sure she had better things to be doing than emailing me recipes, but sure enough, there it was in my inbox this afternoon. So 1) She made it for yesterday’s dessert, 2) she typed up the recipe for me already so I don’t have to do it and 3) she took the time to send it to me. Thank you Mom!!
Here’s my dish, whipped cream on the side because I don’t actually like whipped cream. I did that just for you!
Here’s the recipe for her Mocha Roll for you!
FROZEN MOCHA ROLL
(Good Housekeeping Magazine – 1974 or earlier)
Note: Can be made and frozen one month ahead.
INGREDIENTS
5 eggs, separated, at room temperature
1 cup confectioner’s sugar, divided
Cocoa
Dash salt
Mocha cream (recipe follows)
DIRECTIONS
Day before or early in day:
Preheat oven to 400º. Grease 15½ X 10½ jelly roll pan with shortening. Line plan with waxed paper, then grease again and flour.
Separate eggs while they are cold, taking care not to get any yolk mixed in with the whites because if any egg yolk is present in whites, the whites will not beat to their highest volume. Also, for greatest volume, cover bowl and let egg whites warm to room temperature before beating.
In large bowl, with mixer at high speed, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Beating at high sped, sprinkle in 1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar. Beat until sugar is completely dissolved. Do not scrape sides of bowl. (Egg whites should be stiff with glossy peaks.) Set aside.
In small bowl, with mixer at high speed, beat egg yolks until thick and lemon-colored. At low speed, beat in 1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar, 3 Tablespoons cocoa, and dash of salt, occasionally scraping bowl with rubber spatula. Gently fold yolk mixture into whites until blended. (To do this, with a gentle downward motion and using a spatula, cut through the center of the whites, across the bottom and up the side of the bowl. Then, give the bowl a quarter turn and repeat the cutting motion until egg-white mixture is broken to the size of small peas. Fold just until all ingredients are combined, using spatula or whisk. Over-folding breaks air bubbles, causing a flat jelly roll.)
Spread batter evenly in pan and bake 12-13 minutes. Cake is done when top springs back when lightly touched with finger. Do not overbake.
Meanwhile, sprinkle a clean cloth towel with cocoa. (A flat weave towel, rather than a terry towel, works best.)
When cake is done, use a small spatula to immediately loosen edges from sides of pan. Invert cake onto prepared towel. Gently peel waxed paper from cake. Roll towel together with cake from one of the narrow edges (jelly-roll fashion). Roll as tightly as possible, but do not press down on cake. Cool completely, seam-side down, on a wire rack. Meanwhile, prepare mocha cream.
When cake is cool, unroll from towel. Evenly spread Mocha Cream on cake almost to edges. Starting at same narrow end, roll up cake without towel. Place cake seam-side down on top of plastic wrap. Wrap cake and then place on heavy duty foil; wrap and freeze cake for several hours or overnight.
About 15 minutes before serving, remove cake from freezer; unwrap; let stand for easier slicing.
MOCHA CREAM:
In medium bowl, whip together, until soft peaks form:
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup light brown sugar
3 teaspoons instant coffee (prefer decaf, but not required)
(You can buy 16 oz. container and use remaining 1 cup to whip and serve with cake; add a little confectioner’s sugar to cream before whipping.)
Serves 8 to 10. This can be refrozen if there are leftovers!
The Whole bag of Chips 
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