Hazelnuts roly-poly with lemon custard

This traditional school-dinner dessert gets very special treatment here with the flavours of hazelnuts and plum, which pair wonderfully with a simple maple- and lemon-infused custard. I like to eat both the cake and custard at room temperature, but you could warm either element, or both, if you prefer. The plum jam can be easily swapped with another jam, and if you dont have hazelnuts, blanched almonds would also work well.

Prep 15 min
Cook 1 hr 45 min
Serves 8

300g plum jam
2 tbsp lemon juice

For the cake and praline
140g blanched hazelnuts
4 eggs
80g caster sugar
30g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp lemon zest
2 tbsp double cream
2 tbsp maple syrup

For the custard
300ml double cream
50ml whole milk
2 tsp lemon zest
2 egg yolks
½ tsp vanilla bean paste, or vanilla extract
60ml maple syrup

Heat the oven to 170C (160C fan)/350F/gas 4. Put the hazelnuts on a baking tray and roast for 14 minutes, until very fragrant, leave to cool, then transfer to a spice grinder or the small bowl of a food processor and blitz until finely crushed.

Turn up the oven to 190C (180C fan)/390F/gas 6. Line and grease a 32cm x 22cm swiss roll tin. Put the eggs and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer with the whisk attachment in place and whip for three minutes, until tripled in size. Add the flour, baking powder, lemon zest, 80g of the blitzed hazelnuts and a pinch of salt, and gently fold together until fully combined. Pour into the prepared tin, smooth the top with the back of a spoon and bake for 12 minutes, until golden brown. While still warm and with the shorter end facing you, use the parchment paper to roll up the cake from the shorter end, then set it to one side to cool while you get on with the rest.

For the praline, put the remaining 60g blitzed hazelnuts in a spice grinder or the small bowl of a food processor with the cream, maple syrup and a pinch of salt, and blitz to a smooth paste.

To assemble, unroll the cake, then spread the inside all over with the praline mix. Mix the jam with the lemon juice and use two-thirds of it to cover the praline, leaving a 2cm border around the edges. Starting at the shorter end, roll the cake back up, then discard the paper.

For the custard, put all the ingredients in a medium saucepan on a medium-high heat and cook, whisking continuously for about five minutes, until the mix thickens a little, but is still pourable, then leave the custard to cool.

Serve slices of the cake with some of the cooled custard, with the remaining custard and jam in two separate bowls alongside.