Bûche de Noël
I know it’s after Christmas but Christmas is not a day but a season so why not a recipe three days late? I wanted to share this for the recipe-clippers and recipe-savers out there; it is pretty involved but well worth it as my family testified to.
A brief history: a yule log or bûche de Noël (in French) is a traditional dessert served on and around Christmas in Belgium, France, Switzerland, Quebec, and several former French colonies, one of which—Syria—yours truly happens to be from. The word “yule” actually means a festival observed during the winter solstice by the Germanic and Nordic peoples. The tradition of the yule log predates Christianity and is believed to be about luck. During the yuletide season (between November and January), families were to go into the forest and pick a hearty tree to cut down. They were then to return with the most robust log they could find and burn it in deference to various deities in celebration of life and prosperity. One old European belief says that the log had to catch fire on the first attempt to light it, otherwise the family was doomed to bad luck that year.
The yule log, the cake,is composed of a genoise—an Italian sponge cake—iced, rolled to form acylinder, and iced again on the outside with chocolate buttercream decorated insuch a way so as to resemble a log.
For the genoise (spongecake). This recipe came from my mom’s tattered and batter-stained cookbook. Shetranscribed it long before I existed and got it from her childhood neighbor andmom’s dear friend Tante Viva—Tante meaning auntie, another remnant of Frenchcolonialism in Levantine Arabic.
100 g. all-purpose flour,sifted
125 g. powdered sugar,sifted
4 egg yolks
6 egg whites
The juice of half a lemon
The rind of a half alemon
1 tsp baking powder
Heat the oven to 400˚F.Line a swiss role pan with parchment paper, leave some parchment as overhang.
In a medium bowl, mix theflour and baking powder, set aside. In a large bowl, beat the yolks, sugar,lemon juice, and lemon rind. The goal is to not have lumps, set aside. In aseparate bowl beat the egg whites until they form stiff peaks. Add one spoon ofthe flour mixture to the egg yolk mix and fold slowly and gently enough to notform lumps. Add one spoon of egg whites and fold gently. You want toincorporate the egg whites into the yolk mixture but maintain the fluffinessand airiness of their texture. Repeat this until all of the flour and eggwhites are fully incorporated.
Spread evenly onto theprepared swiss role pan. Bake for exactly 10 minutes. Until the top of the cakebegins to have a golden tinge—almost like the texture and color of theperfectly roasted marshmallow. Remove from the oven and let cool a few minutes.While cooling, dust a clean kitchen towel with powdered sugar and gently peelthe cake onto the powdered sugar-dusted towel. Roll gently and set aside.
While the cake cools,prepare the buttercream, recipe pieced together from multiple verifiablesources:
3 egg yolks (howconvenient, you have 2 leftover from step 1)
1 egg
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
1 1/2 cup unsalted butter,at room temperature
1-2 tbsp. coffee extract ormake a really strong coffee using 1 tbsp boiling water and half a tbsp instantcoffee
In a standup mixture,beat the yolks and the egg until it has tripled in size. While it is beatingaway, prepare a syrup with the sugar and water in a heavy bottomed saucepan.You want the syrup to reach 225˚F, measure with a candy thermometer, and bepatient because it may bubble over so you will want to do this over low heatand pay attention.
Once the syrup reaches 225˚,reduce the speed on the standup mixer, remove the syrup from the heat and addslowly and gently over the egg mixture. Once you’ve added all of the syrup beatfor three more minutes.
Add the butter slowly,1/4 stick at a time. You want the quarter stick to get at least halfincorporated before adding the next quarter stick. Once all of the butter hasbeen added, beat another ten minutes. Add the coffee extract, according to yourpreference.
Chocolate icing, fromPaul Hollywood an English celebrity chef
1 stick unsalted butter,room temperature
200 g. powdered sugar,sifted
25 g. cacao, sifted
1 1/2 tbsp. milk
With a handheld mixer beatthe butter until it’s soft. Sift sugar and cacao over the butter and mix well.Add the milk to soften the icing. Add it in increments because you may not useit all. Or you may need more, use your judgement, but you want it to be asomewhat stiff icing—soft enough to spread but stiff enough to hold the shapeof “bark.”
To assemble the cake:
Spread buttercream over the sponge cake and even it out. I only used about half of the buttercream, the other half you can put on toast and enjoy post holidays but before the New Year’s resolution goes into effect. Gently roll it up and transfer to the platter on which you will be serving. Delicately spread the chocolate icing over the rolled cake. I say gently because you don’t want to tear the sponge cake. Some people use a fork to make the effect of a tree’s bark. You can dust powdered sugar over it to look like snow, or shave chocolate, and add decorations such as macaroon or marzipan mushrooms—the traditional bûche décor. I made my mushrooms (and ladybug) by dying marzipan and hand-shaping the figures. And lastly, enjoy!
so you could see the genois and buttercream
