Glaçage au Chocolat, Bûche de Noël, Biscuit Joconde, Snowflake Decoration

Chef's Bûches de Noël

With the baking and assembly done and dusted, today's was a simply task of finishing up and garnishing the log with all things festive. I gotta say, feeling festive and Christmassy on a hot February morning was just beyond me. In fact, this being Chinese New Year, as my dear San Fran pal Miss Lisa pointed out, surely pineapple tarts would have been a more suitable topic for today's lesson? 

(I had to fly back on New Year's Eve to start class on the 1st day of  the New Year, collecting no Ang Baos as a result. Loved ones and darling relatives...are you reading this?)

Warm Cream + Glucose (For Shine) + Dark Chocolate = Decadent Chocolate Glaze

Blanket Of Oozy Goodness

You'll notice the jaconde has been lined with the almond flakes facing out, to provide the log with the characteristically rugged look of well, a log. Pouring on the still warm and viscous glaze will thinly coat the log, while still allowing the almonds to show through.

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Chef's Marzipan Plaques

Blowtorch-ed For A Touch Of Rustic

Preserved Orange Peel In The Making

Pirate Gert Checking The Brix

At this stage of the preservation process, the peels have been drained and added to a pot of sugar solution brought to a boil. The sugar concentration of the solution has to be carefully monitored to achieve a Brix of 33.

Layers Of Amazing Textures & Flavors

As usual we tasted the cake after demo, though having cake at 10 in the morning isn't my usual feeding routine. I honestly cannot say if it tasted good, I'm sure it did, but I've been down with a serious case of the flu and have not been able to taste anything for the past week! I can say though, the texture of the jaconde was a pleasant surprise, providing the perfect crunch against the creamy mousse and soft, juicy berries.

I miss my taste buds, but things lost and found again are twice as precious, quips Simon. In that case, I can't wait to better appreciate clear breathing and a good night's sleep not interrupted by treacherous coughing fits: I've hardly slept in 3 days, and was still feeling miserable yesterday, but once I stepped into the kitchen and started working on my cake, I was instantly calmer, my nerves soothed, and I was in my happy place once again.

My Bûche de Noël ... & A Timeless Take

You cannot really see it, but my log was actually kinda cute. Chef Andre liked the height of the plaque and the white chocolate stars. I also added some golden dragées (decorative confectionery commonly made with sugar) and flaked almonds for a splash of color and Christmas glam.

To better suit the post-Christmas season, I made a much simpler, more elegantly decorated round cake, swishing the glaze across the top for a subtle pattern and sparsely dotted it with more dragées: silver was my first choice but we didn't have any today. Almond flakes around the edge covers the somewhat messy bits!

Tiffany

This log was topped very simply with broken meringue pieces, flaked almonds and more dragées. For reasons I cannot clearly pinpoint, I've decided to name this creation Tiffany. ;)

Bûche de Noël, Pâte à Bombe, Mousse au Cointreau, Mousse au Chocolat, Strawberry Jelly, Dacquoise aux Amandes, Meringue Française

Mixing Dacquoise Sponge "By Hand"

Hello and Welcome Back! Our return to baking has been a long time coming, and we kicked off the start of the new term with a Christmas classic, Bûche de Noël or Christmas Log. 

Yes I know it is February, and I know it's the middle of a freakishly hot summer here Down Under, but when it comes to good food, and more so good desserts, you should be able to, in fact, you are entitled to enjoy it anytime, anywhere you see fit.

Aka Yule Log, this Christmas classic was first made to commemorate the festive seasons as it resembled a log that was used in fire-festivals of ancient winter solstice. Traditionally made with Swiss Rolls, this has in modern times been replaced by the mousse and cake ensemble. Our cake of choice today: the rich and fragrant almond dacquoise.

Almond Dacquoise, Piped & Topped With Almond Flakes

Baked & Assembled Into Log Molds

Magic Meringue Mushrooms

Melting Chocolate For Mousse, Syrup For Bombe

Pouring Syrup Into Egg Yolks

We made pâte à bombe as the base for the mousses, a rich and velvety-smooth concoction of sugar syrup and egg yolks, the former brought up to a boil before being whisked into the latter at Very High Speed. This is to prevent the yolks scrambling from the hot syrup, and emulsifying into a frothy mixture to be added to flavors such as melted chocolate or Cointreau with a bit of gelatin to hold its shape.

Chocolate & Cointreau Mousse

Building Christmas Logs

Being denser of the two, the chocolate mousse is piped first into the molds to fill it halfway up. A strawberry jelly, made with said berries, gelatin, sugar, more Cointreau and a few drops of orange blossom water (the same used in baklava) is chilled to set before going atop the chocolate mousse, which is then topped with the Cointreau mousse and another layer of dacquoise to finish the job. This is then set aside to be glazed and garnished tomorrow.

Preserved Orange Peel In The Making

In the meanwhile, we begin the long drawn process of making preserved fruit peel, 3 weeks / 9 lessons worth of treating it with sugar, sugar and more sugar before it is ready to be coated in chocolate. Orange and chocolate, my least favourite food combo. But who knows, maybe this will taste much better since we'll be making them from scratch. 

For today, the sliced peels are brought to boil in salted water, to soften them and remove the tartness from the piths. You'll be seeing a lot more of these in the posts to come.