It’s holiday baking season and this year we are making a traditional Yule Log! You can it a Buche de Noel if you are fancy. I filled mine with pistachio pastry cream made from Keenan Farms pistachio and fresh California raspberries. It gives a festive red and green look to this dessert.
A Little History
This dessert is a 19th century creation from France. It represents an even earlier tradition of burning a log on Christmas Eve. The log was called a Yule log and burning it represented the end of the old year, and was supposed to bring good luck in the new year. The tradition became gastro instead of literal and fire places in home became smaller and it became harder to find somewhere to burn a large log. I fully support this tradition change. I fully support cake in any form and for any reason quite honestly.
You Will Need
Buche de Noel with Pistachio and Raspberry Filling
Equipment
- Parchment paper
- Plastic wrap
- A clean tea towel
- A fine sieve
- A saucepan
- Food Processor
- Chocolate candy melts (optional)
- 12×17 baking sheet (jelly roll sheet pan)
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup of flour
- 1/3 cup dark cocoa powder
- 1 t. baking powder
- 1/2 t. salt
- 4 eggs divided
- 3/4 cup of sugar
- 5 Tbl sour cream
- 1/4 cup melted butter
- 1 t. vanilla bean paste or extract
- 1 cup raw unsalted pistachios crushed
- 1/4 cup plus 2 Tbl sugar
- 6.5 ounces heavy whipping cream
- A pinch of salt
- 2 Tbl corn starch
- 4 egg yolks at room temperature
- 1 pint whole milk
- 1 Tbl butter at room temperature
- Touch of green food coloring
- 1 container of raspberries
- 2 sticks of butter at room temperature
- 3 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 3 Tbl. heavy whipping cream or milk
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350. Find a 12 x 17 (or similar) baking sheet with sides, also called a jelly roll sheet pan. Line it with parchment paper and spray with a flour based baking spray as well.
- Dust a tea towel with powdered sugar and set aside to roll your cake in later.
- Sift coco, flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl and set aside.
- Separate your eggs. Melt your butter and set aside to let it cool off before adding.
- In a standing mixer, fitted with whisk attachment, risk yolks and sugar until combined. Add melted butter, sour cream and vanilla.
- Add dry ingredients to mixture. Remove bowl from mixer and set aside.
- In a clean bowl, with a clean whisk attachment, whip egg whites on high speed until stiff peaks form. Gently fold whites into the rest of the batter. You want to be careful to keep as much air in your mixture as possible. Don’t over mix.
- Then spoon batter on to sheet pan and spread evenly. Bake at 350 for 10-13 min.
- Once baked, immediately turn cake onto sugared tea towel. Peel off old parchment and add a new sheet to the top. Now quickly roll the cake up with the tea towel, from the shorter end. Let cool in towel for at least 1 hour.
- While it cools lets work on fillings.
- In a pot over medium heat, combine milk, pistachios and salt, and heat until just simmering. Remove from heat and allow to sit for 15 minutes. Strain through a fine sieve and discard solids. Measure out 1½ cups of the pistachio milk. Add more milk if needed.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together sugar and egg yolks until glossy and well combined. Whisk in cornstarch. Slowly add pistachio milk to the egg mixture, whisking constantly until cream thickens and ingredients are evenly incorporated.
- Strain mixture into a saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until a slow boil begins. Allow mixture to boil 1-2 minutes or until well thickened, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in butter and vanilla. Pass mixture through a fine sieve and transfer to a mixing bowl. Refrigerate until completely cooled.
- Whip cream until hard peaks form. Fold into pastry cream. Reserve refrigerated. When you are ready to assemble your cake, you will want to fold the cream and pistachio mixture together.
- Once your cake has cooled for at least an hour, and your filling has cooled for two you can begin assembly.
- Gently unroll your cake. Line the cake with a thin layer of sliced strawberries.
- Cover with a layer of pistachio cream, spooning it on and then spreading helps. Now, add a layer of broken raspberries to the cream. You can add pistachio crumbs too if you like.
- Prepare a large piece of plastic wrap and have it ready on the counter because now it is time to carefully re-roll your cake. Roll the cake back up and transfer to the plastic. Be gentle so you don’t squish all your fillings right out the sides. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate, seam side down, for at least three hours. Even better if you leave it over night.
Buche de Noel
More Baking Like This
For more fun with cake rolls try our Rainbow Roll Up cake. You may also enjoy this Cranberry Citrus Bundt Cake from Meg at This Mess Is Ours.