Bûche De Noël (Yule Log)
The meringue mushrooms and sugared cranberries & rosemary are completely optional garnishes. The recipe below includes both. For all make-ahead instructions, see recipe notes. I recommend watching the video tutorial above and reading the full recipe below before beginning. There’s a lot of cooling down, chilling, and other moving parts here!
Ingredients
Sugared Cranberries & Rosemary
- 1 cup fresh cranberries 120g
- 4-5 rosemary sprigs
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 cup water
Cake
- 1⅓ cups cake flour 157g
- 2 tbsp cocoa powder 10g
- 3 tbsp cocoa powder for rolling
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- 6 large eggs
- 1 cup sugar 200g
- 2 tbsp oil
- 1½ tsp vanilla extract
Meringue Mushrooms
- 1 large egg white room temp
- ⅛ tsp cream of tartar
- salt
- 2 tbsp sugar
- ½ tsp cocoa powder
- 1 oz semi sweet chocolate
Cocoa Hazelnut Whipped Cream
- 1½ cups cold heavy cream 360ml
- 2 tbsp Frangelico liqueur/Kahlua 30ml
- ¼ cup powdered sugar 30g
- 1 tbsp cocoa powder
- ½ cup shopped hazelnuts optional
Ganache Topping
- 6 oz semi sweet chocolate 170g
- ¾ cup heavy cream
Instructions
Sugared Cranberries & Rosemary (ideally night before)
- Place cranberries and rosemary in a large bowl; set aside.
- In a medium saucepan, bring 1 cup of sugar and the water to a boil and whisk until the sugar has dissolved.
- Remove pan from the heat and allow to cool for 5 minutes.
- Pour sugar syrup over the cranberries and rosemary and stir to combine.
- Let the cranberries and rosemary sit at room temperature or in the refrigerator (lightly covered) for 6 hours or overnight. You’ll notice the sugar syrup is quite thick after this amount of time.
- Drain the cranberries and rosemary from the syrup and pour 1 cup of sugar on top. Toss to coat.
- Pour the sugared cranberries and rosemary on a parchment paper or silicone baking mat-lined baking sheet and let them dry for at least 2 hours at room temperature or in the refrigerator.
Cake
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C).
- Then line it with parchment paper so the cake seamlessly releases.
- Spray or grease the parchment paper too. We want an extremely nonstick surface for this cake roll.
- Whisk the cake flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, beat the egg whites and 1/2 cup (100g) sugar together on high speed for 4-5 minutes or until stiff peaks form.
- Transfer to another bowl.
- Using the same mixing bowl you just had the egg whites in (no need to clean it), add the egg yolks, remaining sugar, oil, and vanilla extract.
- Beat together on high speed for 3-4 minutes or until thickened and light in color.
- Add half of the whipped egg whites into the egg yolk mixture.
- Beat on low speed for 10 seconds.
- Repeat with remaining egg whites and beat on low for 10 seconds.
- Add half of the flour mixture and beat on low or fold with a rubber spatula until combined.
- Repeat with remaining flour mixture. Avoid over-mixing and deflating those egg whites. Batter will be very light.
- Spread batter evenly into prepared pan.
- Gently bang the pan on the counter a couple times to pop any air bubbles.
- Bake for 15-16 minutes or until the cake springs back when lightly poked with your finger. Cake will look a little bubbly on top when it’s done. That’s ok. Avoid over-baking cake because it will crack if over-baked.
- As the cake bakes, place a piece of parchment paper (larger than the cake) or a thin kitchen/tea towel flat on the counter.
- Using a fine mesh sieve, dust parchment/towel with 3 Tablespoons (15g) of cocoa powder.
- Once the cake comes out of the oven, quickly run a knife around the edges to loosen it.
- Immediately invert it onto the parchment/towel.
- Peel off the parchment paper that was on the bottom of the cake as it baked.
- Starting with the narrow end, begin tightly rolling the hot cake up with the parchment/towel. Do this slowly and gently.The cake will be warm
- Allow the cake to cool completely rolled up in the parchment/towel. Feel free to place it in the refrigerator to speed it up, about 3 hours and up to 1 day.
Meringue Mushrooms
- Preheat oven to 200°F (93°C)
- Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
- In a completely clean residue-free large glass or metal mixing bowl, using a handheld mixer or stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the egg white, cream of tartar, and salt together on high speed until foamy, about 2 minutes.
- With the mixer running on high speed, slowly add the sugar and beat until stiff glossy peaks form, about 2 more minutes.
- Snip off the end of a plastic bag or fit a round piping tip in a piping bag. I use and recommend Wilton 2A piping tip or any tip with around a 1/2 inch opening.
- Pipe quarter-sized circles (these will be the round mushroom tops) and 1-inch tall cones (these will be the stems).
- Using a moistened finger (just a dab of water is fine), smooth down any peaks.
- If desired, lightly dust mushroom tops with cocoa powder using a fine mesh sieve.
- Bake for 2 hours. Do not open the oven as the meringues bake.
- Turn off the oven after 2 hours and let the meringues sit inside the cooling oven for 20 minutes.
- Remove meringues from the oven and cool completely.
- When they’re just about cool, melt the 1 ounce of chocolate in a double boiler or use the microwave. If using the microwave, melt in 15 second increments, stopping and stirring between each until melted and smooth.
- Cool for 5-10 minutes.
- Once meringues have cooled, use a flat spatula to remove them from the baking sheets.
- Dot a bit of chocolate onto the center of the bottom of a mushroom top. Adhere a mushroom stem to it.
- Place back on the baking sheet to set. If stems or tops still have a little peak, scrape off with a knife or your spatula
- Let chocolate cool and harden, about 1 hour
Whipped Cream and Assemble
- Remove the cake roll from the refrigerator and allow to sit on the counter for a few minutes to warm up as you prepare the whipped cream.
- Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, whip the heavy cream, Frangelico, confectioners’ sugar, and cocoa powder on medium-high speed until medium to stiff peaks form, about 2-3 minutes.
- Gently and very slowly unroll the cake.
- Spread whipped cream evenly on top, leaving about a 1/2 inch border around the cake.
- Sprinkle chopped hazelnuts on top.
- Gently roll the cake back up, without the parchment/towel this time. Roll it slowly. This part is messy.
- Carefully place on a cutting board.
- If the exterior of the cake looks moist, dust with a little cocoa powder.
- Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and up to 2 days before shaping and topping with ganache.
Ganache and Decorating
- Place chopped chocolate in a medium bowl.
- Heat the cream in a small saucepan until it begins to simmer. (Do not let it come to a rapid boil– that’s too hot.)
- Pour over chocolate, then let it sit for 2-3 minutes to gently soften the chocolate.
- Slowly stir until completely combined and chocolate has melted.
- Ganache will be thin, so it has to thicken before using. Refrigerate, uncovered, for at least 30 minutes and up to 1 hour to thicken.
- Remove rolled cake from the refrigerator.
- Slowly pour and spread thickened ganache all over the top and sides of cake.
- Use a fork to make textured lines resembling tree bark.
- Feel free to wipe the serving plate if ganache dripped all over.
- Decorate with meringue mushrooms, sugared cranberries and rosemary, and a dusting of confectioners’ sugar just before serving.
- Cover leftover cake and store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Notes
https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/buche-de-noel-yule-log/