[Intro music]
Būche de Noėl is a traditional dessert served during the Christmas holidays
in France and several other Christian-populated francophone countries.
As the name indicates, the cake is typically prepared, presented,
and garnished so as it look like a log ready for the fire.
This traditional dessert is easy to make and
is as good as a cake from the best pastry shop or even better.
To make the Būche de Noėl you will need
for the baking sheet we will use butter and flour.
For the génoise we will use flour, corn starch, eggs, sugar and butter.
For the cream; just the cream you have to buy it in can;
this is a French brand, otherwise you will have to make your own
but it’s much better to use a can; butter, rum.
Then for the syrup, sugar, water and rum.
Make sure you use the same alcohol between the cream and the syrup.
You may use the cognac or other alcohol, but make sure you use the same one.
And a little bit of chocolate for the coating, and to garnish,
I have edible pure gold, some silver balls and little bit of mint.
And marrons glacés. The marrons glacés are candied chestnuts.
You may purchase those at any grocery stores that carries Italian or French goodies.
Start by preheating your oven to 400 degrees F or 200 degrees C.
And melt the butter to grease the parchment paper.
We are going to use over the baking sheet.
First step is to make our rolled génoise.
So preheat your oven to 400 degrees F or 200 degrees C and melt the butter to prepare the pan.
Brush the parchment paper with the melted butter.
So brush well. Make sure you don’t leave any pool of butter anywhere.
So make it even.
And the parchment paper that I cut, I cut it just a little bit wider
slightly to cover the edge a little bit.
Reserve the pan and let’s make the génoise.
Then separate the eggs. Pass the yolk from one shell to the other.
Melt the butter for the génoise.
The butter is melted. Then add the sugar into the yolks. And whisk.
So we call them to blanch because the egg yolk mixture
will become pale yellow and they will become fluffy too. Good.
Then add the flour. So half of the flour. And sift it.
And pass it through a sieve and add the remaining flour.
Then add half of the butter. Mix.
Add the remaining butter.
And add the corn starch. So I like to pass it through the sieve to make it lighter.
Then add the remaining corn starch.
Add a pinch of salt in your egg whites. Very tiny.
And whisk the egg yolk until soft picks.
So start on low speed in order to break the membrane
and to have them slightly foamy.
And then we will increase the speed and whisk them hard.
Good. So remove the whisk.
Then add about a third of the egg white into the yolk mixture and fold in.
So at the beginning, it will be little bit hard consistency, thick.
So gently fold in. A little bit more.
When you fold, you place the spatula under the mixture and wrap it up over.
So bring it over. So you folding in. Folding in.
So make sure you are going on the bottom of the bowl
to grab every egg yolk mixture, flour.
You know you don’t have any left element there.
That have been incorporated with the egg whites.
Then transfer the génoise batter over the tray.
Then with the spatula, spread evenly the batter all over.
Meanwhile, damp a towel because as soon as the biscuit will be cooked,
we must roll it immediately. Otherwise it will break and it will be over.
So that will be the secret to make the perfect rolled génoise.
Remove the excesss of moisture.
The génoise is ready. Place the rag over. It’s hot.
Place the second tray over. Flip.
Be careful. The sheet will be hot.
And then.. Using the towel, fold crosswide about an inch and roll.
Great.
Then transfer the rolled génoise to a cooling rack
and let it cool down for about 30 minutes within the rag.
Then meanwhile, I will prepare the chestnut cream.
To make the chestnut cream, it’s easy. Combine the butter, the chestnut cream
and the alcohol together in a bowl. So hold the butter.
It’s easier if your butter is already at room temperature or soft.
Add the rum. And whisk everything together.
Good. If you have the chance to have marrons glacés available,
you may break a few into the cream. So just break them into pieces.
So 3 marrons glacés should be enough. Mix well.
Then now, make the syrup.
In a saucepan, place the sugar along with the water
and the same alcohol as the cream. So for us, today, its rum.
Take the saucepan to the stove and bring it to a simmer for 5 minutes.
Give it a stir to make sure the sugar dissolves.
The syrup has simmered for 5 minutes.
Then place some plastic wrap on your table and unroll it.
Then remove the rolled génoise from the rag. So slowly.
And unroll the génoise. It’s sticky, so take your time.
Alright. Then soak the génoise with the syrup using the brush.
Add a layer of chestnut cream, but use only about two-thirds of the cream.
Then with a spatula, spread it evenly.
Then using the plastic, roll the génoise again. So roll.
See it’s pushing a little bit some of the cream, we are going to pick it up.
Now we are going to decorate the cake.
So transfer the rolled génoise over a platter,
but I have kept 2 pieces of cardboard that I have wrapped in aluminium foil.
I made sure that the cardboard was smaller than the dish, ok.
Because later on, we are going to cut the ends here.
And it will be easier to move around or to change to another platter later on.
Make the icing, but keep the Būche refrigerated.
Melt the chocolate in the microwave for about 15 sec - 20 sec.
The chocolate is melted. So transfer the hot chocolate into the remaining chestnut cream.
Mix well to combine.
So you may use a dark chocolate or a semi-sweet chocolate, but please use a good quality chocolate.
Now let’s add the icing over the Būche.
Then add the cream and spread it evenly,
making sure to not to put any at each end. So go over as much as you can.
Good. So using a fork, draw some stripes.
Decorate your Būche the way you want, you know depending on what is available.
But one suggestion I have is to try to make some nuts.
Because in nuts, or in wood, there is some nuts.
But first of all, place the Būche for 5-10 minutes in the fridge,
the cream has to be little bit colder, not cold but not too soft.
With the fork, just twist and do nuts.
Then add a few marrons glacés to decorate. Press down slightly into the cream.
That way, when the cream will cool down and become firm and they won’t fall.
Then garnish with silver candy pearls.
This is 24 carats edible gold and you will find it also at speciality stores.
Good. Then refrigerate the Būche for a minimum of 2 hours
before trimming the ends off. And then, we will leave it for another 10 hours.
Now when the cream is hardened then trim the ends off.
It will be tricky, but just do it. So hold underneath.. Here we go.
So you want to see the roll and the different layers of the cookie.
Good. Nice and clean. Then transfer the Būche to your platter.
Like that. Great.
Decorate with a fresh mint sprig and preserve refrigerated until you serve it.
Būche de Noėl! Bon appétit!