Christmas is just a few days away and I prepared today my Yule Log for Christmas Eve’s dinner. This year we will spend the holidays in Finland, like every other year. I wished to bring my French touch to a very traditional Finnish Christmas meal, and what could be more French than serving a fabulous looking and fine tasting Bûche de Noël? I quickly set my mind on a Pear-Chocolate duo. The pear mousse is delicately flavored with Tonka Bean, which spicy and fruity unique aroma works wonderfully with both pear and chocolate.
My bûche insert is made of a dark chocolate mousse, on top of a crusty praline and puffed quinoa chocolate layer (le croustillant), and a soft hazelnut biscuit as a base. Many flavors and textures that makes this dessert exquisite!
I won’t hide you that baking such a Yule log requires time and patience. However isn’t it all worth it to amaze and spoil our families with a divine dessert on Christmas Eve?
The Yule log mould I use is about 25 x 8 x h7 cm. The beautiful flake pattern on my bûche comes from a silicon mat I place inside the Yule Log mould. For the finish touch I sprayed white cocoa butter to give that velvety snowy effect. I also sprinkled golden dust to make the bûche even more sparkling and Christmassy.
- Biscuit:
- 20 g corn starch
- 30 g almond powder
- 40 g hazelnut powder
- 70 g powdered sugar (see how to make your own unrefined powdered sugar)
- 100 g egg whites (about 3 eggs)
- 20 g coconut sugar
- Pear Tonka mousse:
- 3 pears
- Fresh lemon juice
- 1 vanilla bean
- 1 tbsp muscovado sugar
- 1 tonka bean
- 3 gelatin sheets
- 75 g xylitol sugar
- 120 ml lactose-free liquid cream
- Chocolate mousse
- 2 eggs
- 65g dark chocolate 70%
- 2 tbsp coconut sugar
- Crusty chocolate-praline-puffed quinoa layer
- 1 tsp praline paste
- 60 g dark chocolate 70%
- 2 tbsp puffed quinoa (I recommend using homemade puffed quinoa as commercial one tends to melt in the chocolate, loosing its crustiness)
- The hazelnut biscuit
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
- Whisk the egg whites until firm. Add the coconut sugar progressively.
- Place the powdered sugar, corn starch, almond and hazelnut powders in a bowl. Sift the mixture and add in 3 times to the egg whites with a spatula.
- Spread on a parchment paper about 1 cm thick (it should cover the size of your mould).
- Bake in the oven about 15 minutes. Let it cool down then cut a rectangle to the shape of your mould base.
- The Pear-Tonka mousse: Peel the pears, place in a saucepan and cover with water. Add the muscovado sugar, few drops of fresh lemon juice and the opened vanilla bean. Bring to boil then cook about 20 minutes until the pears are tender.
- Place the gelatin sheets in cold water for 5 minutes.
- When the pears are tender, take the saucepan out from the heat and mix the pear with a hand held mixer together with the xylitol sugar. Grate finely the tonka bean and stir in the mixture. Squeeze the water out of the gelatin sheets and stir them into the pear warm mixture until they dissolve.
- Whisk the cream until you get whipped cream. Add to the pear mixture: whisk in about ⅓ of the cream, then stir in the rest with a spatula.
- Pour in the yule log mould and place to refrigerator until it hardens a bit (about 20 minutes).
- The chocolate mousse
- Melt the chocolate in bain-marie.
- Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together. Stir in the melted chocolate (let it cool down a little first so it doesn't 'cook' the eggs').
- Whisk the egg whites until mixture is firm. Add delicately to the chocolate mixture in 3 times.
- Let the chocolate mousse cool down entirely then pour it in the yule log mould on top of the pear mousse.
- Crusty chocolate-praline-puffed quinoa layer
- Melt the chocolate in bain-marie. Add the praline paste. Take away from heat and stir in the puffed quinoa.
- Spread on parchment paper in a thin layer, about the size of the mould. Place an other parchment paper on top and gently press with a pastry roll.
- Place in refrigerator to harden.
- Cut a rectangle to the shape of the mould and add on top of the chocolate mousse layer.
- Finally, add the biscuit layer.
- Wrap in film paper and place in refrigerator until you serve it.
- Spray with cocoa butter velvet spray before serving.
If you wish to make an insert slightly less large than your mould (like on my picture), you will need to place the chocolate mousse for a short while in the freezer to harden before you can trim it.
Trim the same rectangle size of chocolate quinoa layer and biscuit layer and assemble them on top of the pear mousse. Then pour pear mousse all around to surround the insert with it.
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