For as long as I can remember, we have always had a shop-bought Christmas pudding on Christmas day. This year, two small 'extra special' (I'll let you guess the shop) Christmas puds were added to the shopping basket but I decided that I wanted to make a 'buche de noel' or chocolate log as it's known here in the UK. Now I don't have anything against Christmas pudding, infact, I love it (especially with a good helping of brandy butter) but I just fancied doing something different, for three main reasons:
1. I've never made a yule log or even a swiss roll before so I wanted to have a go at it,
2. My sister is the only one in my family who doesn't like Christmas pudding so has to silenty sit and watch us eat it while she has to put up with yet another mince pie,
3. I love chocolate, enough said.
Anyway, I found a recipe in the Delia Smith Christmas book and got to work. I used her recipe for the sponge- a simple mixture of beaten eggs whites, sugar and cocoa powder baked in a swiss roll tin. Now I'm not a huge fan of cream so I thought that I'd add some melted milk chocolate to the whipped cream filling to make it really chocolatey.
For the final outer icing, I actually made two types. The first was a bit like a rich chocolate sauce- dark chocolate, butter and syrup, and the second a simple chocolate butter icing. The butter icing was slightly lighter in colour so I was able to use a fork to create a two tone effect on the outside of the log so it looked more like real wood.
I felt that my chocolate log wouldn't be complete without some festive holly leaves, berries and ofcourse a little robin red breast so I made these out of icing and marzipan, then dusted the whole thing with a little icing sugar and grated white chocolate for that snowy look!
Unfortunately, everybody (except me) was far to full to manage any pudding after the huge turkey my mum bought from the butchers, but the log lasted a good few days in the fridge without drying out and was still rather tasty! However, as we missed out on Christmas pud this year, I am now really craving some, and so I am looking forward to new years day when we will probably pop that in the microwave after dinner- yum!
1. I've never made a yule log or even a swiss roll before so I wanted to have a go at it,
2. My sister is the only one in my family who doesn't like Christmas pudding so has to silenty sit and watch us eat it while she has to put up with yet another mince pie,
3. I love chocolate, enough said.
Anyway, I found a recipe in the Delia Smith Christmas book and got to work. I used her recipe for the sponge- a simple mixture of beaten eggs whites, sugar and cocoa powder baked in a swiss roll tin. Now I'm not a huge fan of cream so I thought that I'd add some melted milk chocolate to the whipped cream filling to make it really chocolatey.
For the final outer icing, I actually made two types. The first was a bit like a rich chocolate sauce- dark chocolate, butter and syrup, and the second a simple chocolate butter icing. The butter icing was slightly lighter in colour so I was able to use a fork to create a two tone effect on the outside of the log so it looked more like real wood.
I felt that my chocolate log wouldn't be complete without some festive holly leaves, berries and ofcourse a little robin red breast so I made these out of icing and marzipan, then dusted the whole thing with a little icing sugar and grated white chocolate for that snowy look!
Unfortunately, everybody (except me) was far to full to manage any pudding after the huge turkey my mum bought from the butchers, but the log lasted a good few days in the fridge without drying out and was still rather tasty! However, as we missed out on Christmas pud this year, I am now really craving some, and so I am looking forward to new years day when we will probably pop that in the microwave after dinner- yum!
