Elegant French Buche de Noel

December challenge absolutely required daring and diligence....read on.

Frozen French Yule Log

Once again the Daring Bakers have gone to the brink with an over the top dessert for the holidays. Last year it was the cake and buttercream Yule Log, this year it is the very elegant frozen French Yule Log or Buche de Noel.

A frozen Yule Log very reminiscent of an ice cream cake, only often it’s not made of ice cream but rather frozen mousse of some sort. In French this is called an entremets which is sometimes loosely translated in English as simply a cream dessert. This also means that this recipe is not holiday-specific, it is also just a scrumptious dessert recipe. I suspect, after making this dessert, that most French women purchase their frozen Yule Logs for the holidays, but I am very glad that Hilda and Marion chose it for the December challenge and that I made the time to create my own version, full of chocolate and coffee flavors.

This month's challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux.They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand. If you find that you enjoy these type of desserts, check out Florilege Gourmand for many more gorgeous entremets.

These Daring Baker challenges each month are usually each a learning experience.

With six required parts, many flavor choices to make, and the amount of organization required a lot was indeed learned making this Yule Log!

I also learned that Sweetie doesn’t know not to interrupt my concentration as I’m piping chocolate mousse over the coffee crème brulee’ just before piping more mousse and laying in the white chocolate buttercrunch crisp layer. Then I learned that sincere apologies are needed after I yelled at him for interrupting me, followed by a great deal of thought about the relative importance of doing the challenge. Even though it turned out to be his all time favorite of the Daring Baker challenges, making it with all of the other stressed of Christmas time might not have been wise.

The good news is that I kept the learning experience going by identifying more stressors and dealing with some of them. So it was actually a good thing that the challenge was made and the mousse was interrupted. Ha hah! Still, sorry Sweetie!

The photo above shows all of the layers and how my slices looked for serving.

Chocolate was the main flavor of my buche, with (first element) dark chocolate icing (I used the milk chocolate recipe but used dark chocolate…don’t care for the cocoa version), (second element) dark chocolate ganache, (third element) almond dacquoise and extra almond dacquoise for décor (photo below shows dacquoise being spread before being baked),

(fourth element) a luscious coffee crème brulee’ (simmered some coffee in the heavy cream, then used a fine tea strainer to strain out the coffee grounds. This was my favortie part of the challenge. Photo below.

The next layer was (fifth element) a crisp made using crush cereal,

white chocolate and pulverized buttercrunch candy. If I were to make this again, I would break up the crisp layer because it was too hard to cut…maybe not enough cereal?

The dark chocolate mousse (sixth element) was the most difficult element for me but it was fun to see what the syrup did with the whisk on my KA…almost like cotton candy.

That worried me, but it ended up blending in fine and the mousse was quite delicious.

I decorated the top with dacquoise stars and chocolate covered coffee beans. It made a great dessert for a holiday dinner with friends.

Thank you Hilda & Marion and Flore, too. Happy Holidays all you Daring Baker type people!

Check out the hundreds and hundreds of variations of this gorgeous dessert through the Daring Baker Blogroll.

You can go to Hilda’s blog, Saffron and Blueberries for the full recipe. Marion will be posting closer to the New Year.

Boxing Day Gathering

The day after Christmas is traditionally called Boxing Day in England, Canada and other British countries. The concept is that goods for the poor, of those of lower social status would be boxed up and the lord and lady of the manor would distribute them in their area. In feudal times, Christmas was a reason for a gathering of extended families. All the serfs would gather their families in the manor of their lord, which made it easier for the lord of the estate to hand out annual stipends to the serfs. On 26 December, after all the Christmas parties, the lord of the estate would give practical goods such as cloth, grains, and tools to the serfs who lived on his land. Each family would receive a box full of such goods, hence "Boxing Day." According to this tradition, the lord of the manor did not volunteer, but was obliged to supply these gifts.

In American December 26th is one of the biggest sales days of the year, so things are still boxed up, plus many people use that trip to the mall to return Christmas gifts that didn't suit. That shopping scene is not my cup of tea. Our dog, above, would rather stay home, too.

Our boxing day this year was more like the British in that we had a gathering of the extended family from Sweetie's side of the family and had a finger food party at our house. My daugter finally met her cousins' two little ones, we got to visit with the Oakmont and Cloverdale family members, plus the Healdsburg, the L.A., and San Francisco folks, even my daughter's best friend who is an honorary family member of long standing. There were even a few boxes of gifts exchanged.

Great conversation and lots of food and drink were abundant. The Yule log was finally eaten and was a hit, especially with Sweetie's namesake. Junebug's mom helped me with the mulled apple cider. In some ways, the fact that everyone gathered on this day at our house was her gift to us all. *Thank You*

Here she is serving up some the the cider...a welcome and warm libation today when the cold wind was blowing and the windchimes were ringing. It is just a little spicey and not too sweet with lemon and orange flavors along with the apple...good with a jot of rum, too.

Happy Holidays to everyone!

(Yes, the back is better...thank you to all who left kind and sympathetic messages...you are all great!)

Mulled Apple CIder

1 gallons apple cider

3 whole cinnamon sticks

1 can frozen lemonade concentrate

2 cups orange juice or 1 can frozen orange juice concentrate

6-8 whole cloves

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

1/2 large orange, sliced in 1/4 inch slices

In a large pot bring all of the ingredients to a boil. Cover and lower heat to a simmer. Simmer for 1/2 hour to mingle flavors. Serve warm. It can be kept at a simmer for hours and will only get better. Some people like to add a tot of rum or brandy.