The original Roly Poly recipe came to me many years ago from a Canadian-friend’s mother who once baked this with raspberries and rhubarb. Shahtoot mulberries can be both white and black and are particularly sweet. Baked into a light, buttery, scone-like scroll made moist with syrup, this is a short seasonal treat worth the picking and stem plucking.
Ingredients
(Serves 8)
500 ml water
200 g caster sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 cup caster sugar
360 g plain flour + extra for rolling
4 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
140 g unsalted butter, diced
250 ml milk
3 cups Shahtoot or other black mulberries
1 tbsp + extra softened butter
Method
- Preheat oven to 220ºC
- Heat the water and 200 g caster sugar together until the sugar has dissolved. Set aside.
- Mix the 1/4 cup caster sugar and teaspoon of ground cinnamon together and set aside.
- Combine the flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl.
- Rub the butter into this dry mix until crumbly. Pour in the milk and combine using a fork to make a soft ‘scone-like’ dough.
- Roll the dough out on a lightly floured work surface to a ½ cm thick 35cm x 40cm rectangle.
- Evenly dot the softened butter over the dough.
- Evenly scattering the mulberries over the surface of the dough.
- Sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar before rolling into a log, starting from the long side.
- Cut into 3cm thick slices and lay cut side up in a buttered deep baking dish and pouring over the syrup.
- Bake in the oven for 20 minutes before reducing the temperature to 180ºC for another 20 minutes.
- Serve warm with pouring cream
