How to make buche de Noel (and where to find it in Centre County if you give up)
When we leave work in December, many of us plug in the holiday lights when we get home to brighten the early darkness. We light icicle lights that drip from the roofline or bright-colored bulbs that reach the treetops, but light we must in our perennial effort to chase away the gloom of the year’s shortest day, Dec. 21.
Alban Arthan, the winter solstice, or Yule, has been celebrated since ancient times. To encourage the sun’s return, virtually every culture in the Northern Hemisphere established customs that bring light to the darkness, much like our practice of illuminating our houses.
Derived from the Nordic word “geol” (the g is pronounced with a y sound) that means both “wheel” to suggest the passage of the year and “noise and revelry,” the Norseman celebrated a Yule feast that lasted for 12 days. During this time, log fires burned to hasten the revival of the sun: shrines and homes were decorated with holly, ivy and evergreen boughs, and the occasion called for much feasting and drinking. Viking invasions of Europe from the 9th to the 11th centuries blended Norse traditions with that of the Celts, whose pagan celebrations led by the Druids also honored the natural world. The Druids regarded the woods as places of divine presence and revered mistletoe, a parasitic plant that they considered the tears of the mighty oak. On these dark and windy December nights, the importance of trees and the fuel they provided for our ancestors is easy to understand.
Real Yule logs have been significant for centuries, imbued with practical and symbolic meanings. It was the custom in France until the late 1800s, especially among the poorer classes, to gather extended families under one roof and have each member bring a log to throw on the fire. Warm and toasty, the family would sing carols and attend Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve.
Another European tradition involved cutting a huge fresh log for the open fireplace and lighting it with great ceremony from some splinters of the previous year’s Yule log to protect the house and keep the family safe. The tradition diminished with the size of the fireplaces and eventually was replaced with a symbolic log centerpiece that held three candles.
Buche de Noel, or edible Yule logs, first appeared in France at the end of the 19th century, as documented in 1890 by Pierre Lacam, a French pastry chef and culinary historian. By 1928, they were a beloved classic included in August Escoffier’s menu for Christmas Eve, “Special Reveillon.”
According to a Centre Daily Times food story from Dec. 20, 2000, acclaimed Spring Mills baker and cake designer Kim Morrison mastered the high art of making La buche de Noel, and her creations were mainstays at holiday parties for decades. Now retired from baking professionally, Morrison shared some tips back in the day.
Make both the meringue mushrooms and the marzipan ivy leaves a couple of weeks in advance and store them in an airtight container until needed.
The chocolate ganache icing can be made a day ahead and brought to room temperature.
You can freeze a filled roll up to two weeks ahead and finish it when needed.
Morrison used Rose Levy Berenbaum’s “The Cake Bible” for her Cocoa Souffle Roll sponge cake and White Chocolate Ganache filling recipe, which she made on the day she planned to serve it. The cake must be rolled while it is warm to set the shape. Once cool, unroll, fill, and roll again. “Then just ice with a whipped, room temperature dark chocolate ganache and use a cake comb or a triangle to score the icing to resemble bark. It’s easy.”
Or so she made it sound. The recipe is below if you would like to try it. And if you can’t find the time, there are at least two purchase options this year in the Centre Region. Cakes by Tati will be selling buche de Noel in two sizes, a half that serves 6 for $31 plus tax and a full, to serve 12-15, for $58 plus tax. Preorders are accepted until Dec. 13. Wegmans will also have buche de Noel for sale, if ordered in advance, for $24 for a cake that serves 10.
But if you like a challenge, read on.
La buche de Noel cake has three main ingredients — a sponge cake, a filling that is rolled inside the cake, and a rich chocolate icing. In France, the filling is often flavored with chestnut puree, but any rich filling and any flavor of sponge cake will do. The cake’s shape rolled to resemble the Yule log thrown on the fire at Christmas gives it the beloved distinction.
Rose Levy Beranbaum’s Cocoa Souffle Roll
Makes one 17 by 12 inch jelly roll pan, enough for one log
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon unsifted Dutch process cocoa or 1/4 cup plus three tablespoons nonalkalized cocoa such as Hershey’s
1/4 cup liquid measure boiling water
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons unsalted butter (must be softened)
2/3 cup sugar
6 large eggs, separated
3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
Prepare the jellyroll pan by greasing it, lining the bottom with parchment paper or foil (extending over the sides) and then greased again and floured. Position the oven rack to the lower third of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. In a small bowl stir together all but 1 tablespoon cocoa and the boiling water until the cocoa is completely dissolved. Stir in the vanilla and the butter and cool.
In a mixing bowl, beat 1/2 cup of sugar and the egg yolks for 5 minutes or until light and fluffy. Add the chocolate mixture and beat until incorporated, scraping down the sides.
In a large bowl beat the egg whites until foamy, add the cream of tartar, and beat until soft peaks form when the beater is raised. Gradually beat in the remaining sugar until soft peaks form when the beater is raised slowly. With a large balloon whisk, fold a quarter of the whites into the chocolate mixture to lighten it. Then, gently fold in the remaining egg whites.
Pour into the prepared pan, spreading evenly with a spatula and bake 18 minutes. The cake will have puffed, lost its shine, and spring back when lightly pressed with a finger.
Wet a clean dishtowel and wring it out well. Remove the cake from the oven and leave it in the pan. Dust with the remaining one tablespoon of cocoa and cover immediately with a damp towel. Allow the cake to cool. Remove the towel and gently slide the cake from the pan to a flat surface by lifting the long edge of the liner or foil overhang. Spread the filling onto the cooled cake and, using the liner as support, gently roll up the cake from the long end, peeling off the liner as you roll. To make a small stump, cut a diagonal 2” length from the end of the buche, unroll it and trim to fit. Set stump aside.
Rose Levy Beranbaum’s White Ganache Filling
Makes 2 cups
3 ounces white chocolate, chopped
1 cup liquid measure heavy cream
Refrigerate the mixing bowl and beaters for at least 15 minutes before you start. Over a double boiler, melt the white chocolate with 1/4 cup of the heavy cream. Remove from the heat before the chocolate is fully melted and stir until melted. Set aside until no longer warm. In the chilled bowl, beat the cream until traces of beater marks just begin to show distinctly. Add the white chocolate mixture and beat just until stiff peaks form when the beater is raised.
Kim Morrison’s Chocolate Ganache
One pound bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
One stick of unsalted butter, softened
One cup of heavy cream, scalded
Melt the chocolate and the butter together over a low heat in a heavy saucepan. When smooth, add the scalded cream and stir to blend. Allow to cool to room temperature. Can be made one day ahead.
To assemble, line a long cake platter or decorative board with waxed paper that can be removed easily after you finish decorating. Place the filled roll on platter and attach stump with a bit of the chocolate ganache. Spread the ganache over the roll and score with a cake comb or cake decorating triangle — or with the tines of a fork — to simulate the bark of a tree. Decorate with meringue mushrooms and green marzipan holly leaves, if desired. To serve, slice the log at a slight angle for best decorative effect.
