You’ll LOVE this YULE … the Daring Bakers go French

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2008 comes to an end on a wonderfully high note. Oui!! It’s been an amazing year of being a Daring Baker. This varied group of Daring Bakers type people, brought together by its founding members, Lis of La Mia Cucina & Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice, has grown in leaps & bounds, stretching right across the globe. I joined in Jan this year, with the Lemon Meringue Pie being my first challenge, where I wept with my weepy LMP. The year has been truly sensational in baking terms; I have challenged my boundaries, dared to go where I would have never dared wander…. Thank you Lis & Ivonne for bringing & keeping this wonderful group together! Have a beautiful holiday season & a new year filled with warmth, joy & happiness!! Warm wishes to the Daring Bakers type people too … looking forward to another sensational DB year!!

They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand. THE CHALLENGE RULE is that you MUST MAKE ALL 6 of these elements for the log:I DID IT … 1) Dacquoise Biscuit, 2) Mousse, 3) Ganache Insert, 4) Praline (Crisp) Insert, 5) Creme Brulee Insert, 6) Icing. The assembly will essentially be a Dacquoise Biscuit at the bottom, and the inserts inter-layered with mousse, with an icing finish. The first rule was NOT TO PANIC… which I immediately did! My heart is still palpitating rather quickly as I type my post… but I must say that the praline crisp is the most delicious thing I’ve ever made in 5 minutes flat! Do stop by at Hildas‘ & Marions’ to check out their posts & the recipe.

What is a French Yule Log? In France you can buy two kinds of Yule log, either the Genoise and Buttercream type that we made last December, or what is more commonly purchased which is 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.

What a note to end the year on. I’ll call this the mother of all challenges for the year… & a standing ovation in the end. A serious challenge to challenge the limits of DB’s across the world… 6 ‘must do’ components, a challenge I passed on, & then succumbed to in the very end. For that I need to blame or thank Dharm… Dad, Baker, Chef & a new found ‘aviation background’ friend for enticing me to squeeze in time for this one. I sent in my apologies as I bailed out due to the son falling ill on my marked day…but trust Dharm to give me a blow by blow account. Enticed me with the delicious dark chocolate mousse, gave me the problem with the naughty brulee, told me how he was looking forward to get back home to grab another helping. Then Aparna@ My Diverse Kitchen made it even tougher by cajoling me into maybe trying, if not now, maybe later etc & etc.

I walked straight into the trap, & hit the kitchen on Monday morning the minute the kids left for school & the hub was caught at the airport with fog disruptions.

Je me suis senti très perdu pour la première fois dans ma vie!!

I actually had no clue as to what I was making (just like I’m not really sure what I’ve just written in French…!). All I had was 6 elements in my mind, & that I had to gallop as fast as I could. Should have done the brulee first to save time for later, but never mind. Began with the dacquoise, then mousse, then brulee… with laundry, lunch, chatting on the phone & a visit to the market thrown in. No rice krispies or corn flakes, you see. I did most of it the first day & left the ganache insert & icing for day 2… by the end of day 1 I had a serious overdose of egginess!! I wanted nothing to do with the log. Everything I looked at smelt of egg, eggophobic me, & I just thought I wouldn’t touch it with a bargepole.

By the evening, when I served these little dessert cups made with left over crisp & chocolate mousse, drizzled with melted marmalade, I was cured of the fear of egg, & sat back & enjoyed a pre-DB dessert! It was delicious!! I think its a great dessert to be made for the future… just the crispy praline layer at the bottom, topped with mousse from the challenge… the mousse was luscious & set beautifully! Était délicieux!

The dacquoise was brilliant. I made a walnut base since I had a fresh lot of walnuts that my Mom’s friend got for me from Kashmir. Made it spread out in a jelly roll pan. Was good enough to go right around my log. I cut a small strip for the top, & used the rest to line my loaf pan. Of course I had huge plans of making a ‘log’ mould etc, but finally, in panic, just used the loaf tin. It worked alright, but would have looked prettier as a log! Whatever…

I did a ginger creme brulee for the insert, where I steeped the milk for an hour with some minced fresh ginger & a spilt vanilla bean. I strained it & whipped the custard mix & just before pouring it in to set it, added some finely chopped crystallised ‘ginger & tangerine’ peel. I crystallised them the day before, after getting hypnotised by a David Levobitz post about candied ginger. Helen @ Tartlette mentioned a water bath to bake the brulee in until “just wobbly”. As far a I am concerned, Helen’s word is my baking law, so I blindly follow it, always. Did just that, the creme brulee was slightly wobbly & pushed into the freezer. Maybe I should have given it a bit longer to firm up, as it wasn’t too easy & smooth to slide into my final assembly, but oooooooooooooh did the flavours mature well in the log. Tasted just fantastic!

The praline crisp was delicious too. Couldn’t find rice crispies here, so cornflakes went in. I should have crushed them a bit to get a thinner crisp. That way there might have been enough place in my log for 2 layers. The mousse was lusciously divine, but it was the ganache insert which I did in white chocolate that won my heart. It was finger licking good & delectable.

The final assembly was done in a hurry, so what’s new, huh?… but was a whole lot of fun!! And, in grave error of order of layers, in went the dacquoise, then a layer of mousse, then a layer of crisp. Should have actually been the creme brulee, then mousse, then the crisp. Well, in any case, it worked well. The white chocolate ganache insert went in early next morning, sealed with the reserved bit of dacquoise.

The icing was fiddly, didn’t know which direction I was going in, & whether it would just slide off. Thankfully it stayed put & tasted quite nice. The kids lapped up the slightly rubbery extra bit between cookies!Aaaaah, finally the topping. To tie in my flavours, I used crystallised ginger & tangerines, fresh tangerines dipped in dark chocolate, dark chocolate flakes, dark chocolate leaves, & a sprinkling of sugar. Once done, I felt it looked too noisy & busy for me, but the kids loved it. Eventually I thought it was festive in every which way… a celebration of being a Daring Baker!!

The taste was unsurpassed. Never had something quite as exquisite & luscious as this. Thank you Dharm, once again! It was out of this world. Each layer had it’s own texture & flavour, it’s own beauty. And then all the layers came together in perfect harmony! C’est Magnifique!! What a beautiful experience this one has been. Thank you Hilda/ Merci Marion … for the wonderful & really adventurous challenge!

Please do stop by here & check out what our other Daring Bakers have rolled into their logs this holiday season! Pardon my broken French word usage & thank you for stopping by…

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