Bûche de Noël

For a Christmas Eve party I wanted to make something special and decided to try the classic dessert.  Lots of internet searching led me to this recipe.  It was very pretty and with the video, seemed quite doable.  The problem is that the actual recipe isn't written down in the link so I watched and wrote it down.  I will say that I wasn't overly impressed with the flavor of each separate component but they came together nicely.

Here's a picture of the one from the recipe:

And this is what mine looked like when I was done:

As you can see, I did the bark differently.  The ganache wasn't a pipe-able texture for so long that I wasn't sure it would thicken up so I just frosted it lightly and then decorated with chocolate bark. The chocolate bark is leftover bittersweet chocolate (about two oz) that I'd melted to glue the mushroom caps and bottoms together. I brushed it with a silicon pastry brush onto wax paper - the brush made great bark texture.  I broke apart the pieces and set it into the ganache for this look which I think is better than the original.  I also find ganache overwhelmingly rich so it also decreased the flavor intensity a bit.  I used about 1/3 of the ganache and used the rest to make two chocolate orange curd tarts and those were fabulous! 

Notes:

1. I piped and baked the meringue mushrooms a couple of days before making the rest of the cake and that worked just fine.
2. I didn't have any superfine sugar so put sugar into a food processor and chopped for about a minute.  Seemed to work just fine.
3. The recipe made more than twice as many mushrooms as needed. 

Bûche de Noël

350F
12-15 minutes

Sponge

Preheat the oven. Cut parchment paper to exactly fit the bottom of a half sheet pan (13x18).  The video didn't show if the paper was greased but I greased it and also the bottom of the pan (not the sides) and it was fine. 

Whisk until smooth and well blended:

8 egg yolks (room temperature)

3 T superfine sugar

Whisk into the egg mixture:

6 T room temperature milk

6 T vegetable oil

1 t vanilla

Sift then whisk into the egg mixture:

1/4 c flour

1/4 c cocoa

6 T corn starch

Mix to soft peaks:

8 egg whites

1 t cream of tarter

Then gradually add and beat to medium peaks:

1/2 c superfine sugar

Gently fold the egg white mixture into the egg yolk mixture until blended.  Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 12-15 minutes until cake is set.

Remove from the oven, use a knife to loosen the case from the sides.  Place a clean towel over the cake, then a cooling over the towel and flip the cake onto the towel.  Peel off the parchment, cool 10 minutes, then roll the cake into a log, leaving the towel in place.  Cool completely.

Filling

Beat until smooth and light.

4 c powdered sugar, sifted
1 c room temperature butter

Add gradually:

1/3 milk

Stir in:

1 1/2 t vanilla

1/4 t salt

1/4 c chocolate/hazelnut spread

Unroll the cooled sponge.  Spread the filling except for a half an inch around the outside of the sponge.  Roll and place in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

Ganache

Break up the chocolate and pour hot cream over the chocolate, giving it a bit of time for the chocolate to melt.  Stir until well mixed.  To pipe, let cool for what feels like forever but was likely about an hour.  I used only about 1/3 of this because I frosted instead of piped.  

12 oz bittersweet chocolate

1 1/4 c heavy cream

Meringue mushrooms (and chocolate bark)

200F
1 1/2 to 2 hours

This made more than twice as many mushrooms as needed.  Line a pan with parchment paper

Beat to soft peaks

2 egg white
1/4 t cream of tarter

Gradually add, then beat to medium/stiff peaks:

1/2 c superfine sugar

Pipe separate mushroom tops and stems onto a parchment lined pan - size 12 tip.  Sprinkle with:

1 T cocoa

Bake for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, then turn off the oven and let them cool completely in the oven. (or at least 30 minutes).  

Melt:

2 oz bittersweet chocolate

Use the chocolate to glue the tops to the bottoms.  Then use the remaining chocolate to make chocolate bark by using a silicon pastry brush to brush it on a piece of wax paper.  Allow to dry, gently pry off the paper.

Sugared Cranberry and Rosemary

These made it really pretty.   Lots of wasted sugar solution though, could use about half this and still have way too much.

Bring to a boil:

1 c sugar

1 c water

Dip in the sugar mixture then remove, drain, and roll in sugar (I did this right on the counter because the cranberries fell through the holes of the cooling racks and I found if they cooled, the sugar wouldn't stick anyway). 

1/2 c fresh cranberries

6 rosemary sprigs

Assemble the log

Cut about 1/2" off one end of the log to expose the swirl.  Cut the other end at an angle, about 2 inches from the end.  Glue the piece on the side of the longer log with ganache, cut side out to show the swirl.  Cover all but the ends with a light coat of ganache, place the chocolate bark along the log, then glue the mushrooms in place with ganache.  Add the cranberries and rosemary.  Sift confectioners sugar over it if you need snow. Enjoy your masterpiece.