Julia’s Bûche de Noël Recipe with Improved Directions (2024)

Posted by: njbrown | December 5, 2011

Julia’s Bûche de Noël Recipe with ImprovedDirections

December 5, 2011

Julia’s Bûche de Noël for Christmas

It’s been two years since I last made Julia’s bûche (See Julia’s Bûche de Noël for Christmas – with recipe). Never having been satisfied with my meringue mushrooms on the last one, a pot-luck this weekend gave me an opportunity to try to do better. While Julia says the bûche is simple – just a sheet cake with an Italian Meringue icing – I beg to differ with her. This challenge takes between three and four hours, and involvesover fortysteps. In working through the recipe I previously put together from her The Way to Cook, I saw that there were still areas of unclarity, and so I have tried to remedy that in this recipe. Julia changed her recipe forBûche de Noël several times over the years. In her penultimate master book, From Julia Child’s Kitchen, she gave a recipe that she said was just like the one she did on the French Chef – except for the cake and the filling and icing. I laughed when I read that! NB: If you need a simplier “fool-proof” Buche recipego to Flourless Chocolate Roulade – (Foolproof Bûche de Noel)

Among the lessons I learned this time is that this dessert does not travel well. I had put my mushrooms on the bûche and had dusted the log with powdered sugar, but the sugar evaporated quickly, and the mushrooms softened in the few hours the bûche had been refrigerated prior to leaving for the dinner. (Julia said to put the mushrooms on just before serving, but we needed to take the picture.) On a humorous note, one of the guests at the dinner asked if the mushrooms were real. On the plus side, it meant I hadn’t done a bad job. On the minus side, it meant he thought I’d put raw mushrooms on a chocolate-frosted cake. Oh well…

Julia stressed elsewhere the need for mise en place – assembling your ingredients in advance in their measured quantities. If you never ever do a mise en place for anything else, I urge you to do it for the bûche. For those who saw Julia struggling with her bûche in those early days of her show, you know the endeavor seemed jinxed, but finally she managed to pull it all together. If you have trouble with this, you’re in the very best company.

Julia’s Bûche de Noël, with Chocolate Italian Meringue Frosting is a combination of various Bûche recipes from Julia’s books. In The Way to Cook, she had left out some of the details that – for me – make the recipe easier to follow. I did not include her instructions for the “caramel veil” since this doesn’t seem botanically correct, has the potential to make a major mess in the kitchen, and the Bûches I saw in France had none. I also do not give directions for putting broken branches on the Bûche, as I never have found this an aesthetic addition. The cake recipe has the orange flavour of her orange almond Bûche, but not the pulverized nuts, so is my combination of two of her recipes. In response to a request from a reader, I have added a comprehensive list of equipment suggested, and a list of ingredients. Good luck!

Sponge cake: Pâté a Biscuit EQUIPMENT SUGGESTED:

  • 11 by 17-inch jelly-roll pan
  • Wax paper
  • 3-quart mixing bowl; a wire whisk or portable mixer;
  • Clean dry bowl and beater for the egg whites;
  • Large rubber spatula
  • 2 baking sheets
  • Very lightly dampened tea towel
  • Plastic wrap
  • Pastry bag

Ingredients:

  • Butter
  • ½ cup flour
  • 3 eggs (whites and yolks will be used separately)
  • 3 egg whites
  • ½ cup sugar
  • 1 ½ Tbs sugar
  • ¾ cup sugar
  • 1 ½ tsp pure vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
  • Juice and grated zest of one orange
  • 2 Pinches of salt
  • 2 Scant ¼ tsp cream of tartar
  • 1/3 cup + ¼ cup (9 Tbs total) plain bleached cake flour, scooped and leveled into a sifter set over wax paper
  • 3 Tbs tepid melted butter
  • Confectioner’s sugar for sprinkling baked roll
  • ½ cup confectioner’s sugar
  • ¼ cup water
  • 1 cup chilled whipping cream
  • 12 oz. semisweet chocolate melted with 1/3 cup strong coffee
  • 1/3 cup – approximately – sifted unsweetened cocoa
  • 2 – 3 Tbs – sifted unsweetened cocoa in a tea strainer
  • Small amount confectioner’s sugar in a fine-meshed sieve
  • Sprig of artificial holly

Sponge cake: Pâté a Biscuit Preliminaries:

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees with rack on lower middle level.
  2. Measure out all ingredients.
  3. Butter jelly roll pan, and then cover with wax paper that is two inches longer at each end.
  4. Butter and flour wax paper (using approximately ½ cup flour, and knocking out excess after moving sheet so that all parts have been covered).

Batter Base: The egg yolks and sugar:

  1. Start beating the 3 egg yolks in the mixing bowl, and gradually beat in the 1/2 c. sugar by tablespoon; continue for several minutes, until the mixture is thick, pale yellow, and forms the ribbon.
  2. Beat in the 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla.
  3. Beat in orange juice and grated zest.

Beating the egg whites:

  1. Beat the 3 egg whites, starting at slow speed, until they foam throughout.
  2. Add the 1 pinch of salt and 1 scant 1/4 tsp. cream of tartar, and continue until soft peaks are formed; sprinkle in the 1 1/2 T. sugar and beat to stiff peaks.

Finishing the batter:

  1. At once, stir a quarter of the egg whites into the beaten egg yolk and sugar mixture to lighten the mixture.
  2. Rapidly plop a third of the remaining whites on top, and sift on a quarter of the flour.
  3. Delicately and rapidly fold them together, and when almost blended repeat the sequence with a third of the remaining egg whites and a third of the remaining flour, then half of each, and when you have almost blended the last of each, add and fold in the 3 T. tepid melted butter – do not over blend or you will deflate the batter.
  4. Proceed at once to the baking.

Baking the sponge sheet About 7 – 10 minutes at 375 degrees.

  1. Immediately turn the batter into the prepared jelly roll pan spreading with a spatula to get into the corners; bang once firmly but not roughly on your work surface to settle it, and place at once in preheated oven.

When it is done: It is done when the top just feels springy. It must just hold together; if overcooked and dried out it will crack when you roll it up.

Cooling and unmolding:

  1. Remove from the oven, and slice ¼ inch off the long sides of the sponge sheet – they may be brittle and will crack.

The following maneuvers are to prevent the cake from becoming dry and impossible to roll. A video showing this is here: Return to Roulades

  1. Sprinkle the top with 1/16-inch layer of confectioner’s sugar. One sixteenth is a light dusting of sugar, but be sure to completely cover the surface.
  2. Cover with a sheet of wax paper and a VERY lightly dampened tea towel.
  3. Turn a tray or baking sheet upside down over the cake, and reverse the two.
  4. Unmold the cake by holding an end of the wax paper while you lift off the jelly-roll pan.
  5. Neatly and carefully, peel the wax paper off the cake. I find it easier to pull the paper back almost horizontally.
  6. Sift another 1/16-layer of confectioner’s sugar over the cake and roll it up in the VERY slightly dampened towel, and put on rack to cool – about 30 minutes. (Julia says the roulade may be baked a day or two ahead and refrigerated having been wrapped in plastic wrap. If it is frozen, it needs to thaw an hour or more or it will break.)

Making the Italian meringue The egg whites:

  1. Beat the other 3 egg whites (room temperature) at slow speed until they foam throughout; add a pinch of salt and scant 1/4 tsp. cream of tartar.
  2. Gradually increase speed to fast, and beat to soft peaks. Turn the machine to slow as you complete the sugar syrup.

The sugar syrup:

  1. Bring the 3/4 c. sugar and 1/4 c. water to the simmer, swirl the pan to dissolve the sugar completely, cover gently, and boil to the soft-ball stage (238 degrees).

Sugar syrup into egg whites:

  1. Beating the other 3 egg whites at moderately slow speed, dribble into them the boiling syrup – trying to avoid the wires of the whip.
  2. Increase speed to moderately fast, and beat until cool and the egg whites form stiff, shining, upstanding peaks. The meringue is now ready.

Meringue mushrooms:

  1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.
  2. Scoop a quarter of the plain Italian meringue into a pastry bag and using the ½ inch tip, squeeze out 8 to 10 ½-inch domes onto a buttered and floured baking sheet (having knocked off the excess flour) to serve as caps. I find it very hard not to get points when I lift the piping bag, but the points can be smoothed off with a slightly wet finger.
  3. Use the ⅛ inch tip to squeeze out 8 to 10 conical shapes ¼ inch high, for the stems.
  4. Bake about 1 hour in the middle level of the oven, until the meringues push easily off the pastry sheet. They should remain very light colored. They can be frozen, or stored air-tight until just before serving the Bûche.

Frosting and Filling:

  1. Beat smoothly melted 12 oz. of chocolate with the 3 T. strong coffee into the Italian meringue.
  2. Then fold in 1 cup whipping cream that you have whipped with 1/2 cup confectioners sugar and 1 tsp. vanilla.
  3. Remove ⅔ of the mixture to a bowl and refrigerate; this is the frosting.

Filling the cake:

  1. Gently unroll the cooked cake, and spread the filling over the top. If the filling is too thin, refrigerate for about 15 minutes and test again. A couple tablespoons of cocoa can be beaten into it to make it firmer.
  2. Roll it up from one of the short sides, and you have made a log. You may need to gently release the bottom of the cake from the waxed paper as you are rolling so that it doesn’t stick.
  3. Neatly slice a narrow slanting piece from each end of the log.
  4. Using an offset spatula inserted under one end of the log, transfer it to the serving platter placing it seam side down.
  5. Slip double sheets of wax paper under the edge of each side and the two ends to catch spills.

Frosting the log:

  1. Beat 2 or more spoonfuls of sifted cocoa into the frosting mixture to make it of spreadable consistency. (Reserve 2 tablespoons of frosting for assembling the mushrooms.)
  2. Leaving the two ends unfrosted, frost the cake using a flexible metal spatula, and then use a fork to give it a bark-like look.
  3. Remove wax paper. Cake can be refrigerated at this point, covered.

Final decorations – just before serving. The mushrooms:

  1. With a small knife, piece a hole in the bottom of each meringue mushroom cap, insert a bit of the frosting (or softened butter) into the hole, and then the pointed end of the meringue stem.
  2. Dust the mushroom tops with cocoa powder tapped from a very fine sieve. Arrange the mushrooms in tasteful clusters on the log.
  3. Dust the log with a sparse coating of confectioner’s sugar to give a snowy effect.
  4. Decorate with artificial holly.

Let me know how your bûche turns out (leave a comment below). Nancy

Posted in Baking, Chocolate, Cooking, Desserts, Julia Child, recipe | Tags: Baking, Buche de Noel, Christmas, Desserts, Julia Child, recipe, The Way to Cook

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Julia’s Bûche de Noël Recipe with Improved Directions (2024)

FAQs

What is bûche de Noël which is commonly eaten in France during Christmas? ›

Bûche de Noël is the French name for a Christmas cake shaped like a log. This one is a heavenly flourless chocolate cake rolled with chocolate whipped cream and decorated with confectioners' sugar to resemble snow on a yule log. It doesn't just look beautiful — it tastes wonderful, too!

What is the meaning of bûche de Noël? ›

bûche de Noël in American English

(byʃ də nɔˈɛl) French. a French Christmas cake made from a thin layer of spongecake that is rolled up and frosted so as to resemble a decorative Yule log. Word origin. Fr, lit., log of Christmas.

Why do we eat bûche de Noël at Christmas? ›

It is thought that the Bûche de Noël comes from an ancient Celtic tradition of finding a large tree log and burning it on the shortest day of the year, in celebration of the Winter Solstice. In medieval France a Christmas feudal tax required peasants to bring a large log of wood to the manor house of the feudal lord.

Which way do you roll a yule log? ›

Sit the flat chocolate cake on a large piece of baking parchment. Trim the edges of the Swiss roll. Spread some of the icing thinly over the sponge, going right out to the edges. Start rolling from the long side facing you, taking care to get a tight roll from the beginning, and roll up to the other side.

What is the most popular dessert in France at Christmas? ›

Bûche de Noël, or Yule log

The most traditional Christmas cake in France is the Yule log, or bûche de Noël. A rolled sponge cake filled with buttercream, it is shaped and decorated with chocolate frosting or ganache to resemble a log of wood.

How long does a bûche de Noël last? ›

How long does Bûche de Noël keep in the fridge? This cake can keep up to 5 days in the fridge in an airtight container. The chocolate ganache acts as a barrier and keeps the cake soft and moist for days. Make sure to place a peice of parchment paper on each end of the cake so that it does not dry out from the sides.

Why do the French eat Yule logs at Christmas? ›

The Yule log was originally part of Celtic culture. During the Winter Solstice – the shortest day of the year – the Celts would keep a wooden log burning throughout the night to celebrate the rebirth of the sun. The first rolled, log-shaped cakes appeared in France in the late 19th century.

Why is Christmas called Noël in France? ›

Where did the word Noel come from? The first records of the word Noel in English come from the early 1800s. It comes from French Nöel—the French way of saying “Merry Christmas” is Joyeux Noël. The word derives from Latin word nātālis (diēs), meaning “birthday.” Another name for Christmas is Nativity.

Who created bûche de Noël? ›

Also known as a bûche de Noël, this festive favourite was inspired by a centuries-old Christmas tradition and popularised by the pâtissiers of Paris.

Why Yule log cake? ›

Yule log cake, or bûche de Noël, is a Christmas cake with a ritualistic past. Cleverly shaped and decorated to look like a 3-D log, the cake represents a melding of ancient midwinter traditions: one that celebrated the end of winter, and another honoring the Norse god Thor.

Why are 13 desserts served at Christmas dinner? ›

They are thirteen different desserts (dried fruits, candies, sweets and so on), which represent Christ and his twelve apostles at the Last Supper. They normally start to be eaten following midnight mass, and should remain on the table for three days (it's tradition!).

Why did my yule log crack? ›

If you overbeat the batter or bake the cake too long, it could become dense, gummy, or dry — and thus more likely to crack. Our yule log recipe has 1/4 cup (25g) oil in it, which provided some helpful moisture.

When should I burn my yule log? ›

During the 12 days of Christmas, the yule log would continue to burn as families moved the tree further into the fire. The yule log would begin burning on Christmas Day and extend until January 5, also known as Twelfth Night.

Can yule log be frozen? ›

You can freeze your yule log in an airtight container for up to one month before serving. Just remember to take it out of the freezer the night before you intend to eat it! Whenever you decide you get baking, add a cocoa twist to your Christmas desserts this year with a delectable chocolate yule log.

Do the French eat Christmas cake? ›

Every country has an iconic cake that is served at Christmas. The Brits have their traditional fruit cake, the Italians panettone, but the French… they have a Bûche de Noël.

Do the French eat Christmas pudding? ›

Classically, the meal will start with oysters and/or foie gras, continue with turkey – often with chestnut stuffing (get someone to send you sage and onion from Britain; the chestnut stuff is grim), cheese and then dessert. It is a mark of France's civilisation that the nation has never embraced the Christmas pudding.

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