HOW TO: Bake a chocolate nut roll

I am a big fan of baking, but I seem to be totally behind the times when it comes to fun-things-that-everyone-likes, so I've only just started watching the Great British Bake Off (and Doctor Who, and everything else that everyone likes. I'm late to the party).

Luckily, I get the GBBO hype now, so I was pretty excited when Stork challenged me to this week's technical challenge as part of their #storktwist Great British Bake-Off Blogger Challenge (phew!). Here's how I did it...

You'll need the following ingredients:

• 525g plain flour
• 1 & 1/2 tsp salt
• 65g caster sugar
• 2 tsp yeast
• 240ml soured cream
• 2 large eggs
• 40g Stork

For the filling:

• 115g Stork
• 120ml evaporated milk
• 200g caster sugar
• 85g cocoa powder
• 450g mixed nuts (I used 150g walnuts, 100g pecans, 100g hazelnuts, 100g almonds)
• 100g dark chocolate chips
• Milk to glaze

And you'll want to heat your oven to 160 degrees (or 180 degrees if it's not a fan oven). 

To start, grind your nuts in a food processor. In GBBO they gave one of the contestants good comments for not grinding his nuts too finely, so only give them a quick blitz. Warm the Stork, evaporated milk and caster sugar in a small pan, stirring constantly, until it is melted and combined.

Stir in the ground nuts and cocoa powder, heating gently until the mixture thickens (mine got quick pretty quickly). Remove from the heat and transfer to a bowl to cool to room temperature.

Now, start to make your dough (OH GOD). Combine the flour, sugar, yeast, salt, soured cream, eggs and Stork in a bowl. Do not do what I did, which is carefully measure out a teaspoon of salt... get impatient at how slow the salt is pouring... give it a shake, and knock the top off - causing the ENTIRE tub of salt to tumble into the dough, forcing you to restart the whole bloody thing. Don't do that.

Mix to a rough dough. I find it quite hard to knead dough in a bowl, so I tipped it out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead for ten minutes, by pinching the dough with your fingertips, lifting and pressing back down. I'd recommend setting a timer for this bit - kneading isn't the most exciting thing in the world, so it's easy to feel like you've been doing it for AGES (when it's actually only been four minutes).

Transfer to a lightly greased bowl, cover and allow to rise for an hour. Do your washing up.

Now, the fun bit! Lightly grease the worksurface and split the dough in half. Roll out each portion to a rectangle (they recommend 25cm x 40cm, but I just guessed).

Spread half with the chocolate nut filling - this isn't the easiest thing to spread, but just take your time and you'll be fine. Sprinkle over half of the chocolate chips.

Fold over the two short edges just a little to encase the filling. Take the long edge, and start to roll the dough tightly to make a long roll. If you've greased your worksurface, it should be easy enough to roll without the dough tearing. Make your second roll the same way.

Transfer both rolls to a lined baking tray, cover loosely and leave to rise for THREE hours. Yup. Three. Hours. This is very, very much a bake for a lazy Sunday afternoon (rather than a Wednesday evening). Do your dishes while you are waiting.

When they are all nicely risen, brush with milk and bake in the oven for 35 minutes until golden.

Enjoy with a cup of tea!