The Yule Log

 

Oh, only one more left, I guess I’ll have to make it worth it then. This is by far the most demanding of the recipes on this list, The Yule Log, Shall we begin.

 

This recipe uses two different jams, one strawberry and one blueberry, both made from scratch. But if you are tight on time you can just buy them, but where is the fun in that? A baker needs to prove that they can make jam without destroying a pan at some point. If you want to make the jam, start at step 1) 1-2 days before you make the rest of the log. As it takes a day to prepare the core sugar mix, it’s also best to let your jam cool before using it. I would also suggest a fully metal pan, ones without the “non-stick” coating. As jam has a tendency (especially if you use a high temperature) to stick to a pan. And as you scrub away the sugary, burnt caramel at the bottom, you’ll end up with a sink of “non-stick” coating and a pan which will slowly deposit small amounts of “non-stick” coating into your next dish. And the “non-stick” coating doesn’t go well with pasta, rice, potatoes or anything else for that matter, trust me on this. A few years ago I made jam at university, completely wrecking both the two “non-stick” pans I owned, a mistake you only make once. So as a fair warning: be careful if you make your own jam. 

 

This recipe also uses a dark chocolate mousse. I used Ecuador (71%, Dark) Chocolate. But that was because I wanted to go fancy, with a fancy chocolate. Any dark chocolate (or milk chocolate if you prefer) works just as well. This needs to be left in the fridge for over 3 hours (or freezer for 1 hour 30 mins) So my tip would be to make your mousse, put it in the fridge while you go shopping or spend the day getting into a christmas mood. Then come back to it later to finish the recipe. 

 

This Yule Log has Chocolate, chocolate and extra chocolate. Did I mention chocolate? No, well this recipe is stuffed full of Chocolate and is a divine treat for any chocoholics in your family. 

 

This recipe is long, with many steps requiring hours or days of prep time, please make sure you’ve planned enough time for it. 

 

I’ve split the ingredients for each section, a blank line is for the next set of steps. The method will clearly state what section of ingredients you are using. Only getting out the ingredients you need for a set of steps helps you not cover all your surfaces with ingredients and bowls, ending in quite the mess. 

 

It is a very filling showstopper fit for a Christmas/Boxing day celebration. The mix of flavours in a single slice is truly divine. 

Equipment:

• 2 small bowls (regularly cleaned up during the recipe)

• 1 pan

• 1 glass bowl

• 2 jugs

• 1 large bowl

• Large rectangular baking tray

• Baking parchment

 

Ingredients: 

 

Jam(s): At step 1)

- Strawberries (more than 200g (e) on packaging) 

- Blueberries (more than 200g (e) on packaging) 

- Jam sugar (dependent on fruit weights, explained in the step. ) 

 

Mousse: At step 20)

- 125g Ecuador (71%, Dark) chocolate (Or other chocolate) 

- 2 Eggs, separated into whites and yolks (Explained more in the step) 

- 100ml Double cream 

- 1 tsp Caster sugar 

Roulade: At step 30)

- 3 eggs (whole) 

- 85g Caster sugar 

- 75g Plain flour 

- 30g Cocoa powder (go for dark cocoa powder if you can) 

- ½ tbsp Baking powder 

- Butter to grease tray. 

Chocolate buttercream Icing: At step 44)

- 100g unsalted butter

- 225g Icing sugar 

- 3 tbsp Cocoa powder 

- 3 tbsp milk 

- 100g - 150g Dark Chocolate

Chocolate decoration (Optional): At step 52)

- 100g Dark chocolate bar (or a flake works well too) 

 

Method: 

 

1) Prepare your jam, go to step 20) if you are using shop bought jam. Are you still there? Great. Let’s jam. 

2) Let’s start with your strawberries. Wash your strawberries. Then get a cutting board out and place the strawberries pot (from the shops) on your left of the board. Place a bowl, which is on top of a measuring scale on your right. 

3) Pull the green part of your strawberries off, then cut the white section of the top off. 

4) Now dice the strawberries as small as you can (the smaller the better) or you can mash them up, but that's not needed. Place the strawberry pieces/paste into your bowl. 

5) Now look at your measuring scales. Divide this number by 100 and multiply by 75 (or multiply by ¾) to get the amount of jam sugar you need to make your jam “work”. Tare your scales to 0 and add this amount of jam sugar to the bowl. 

6) Then cover with a plate and leave for at least 12 hours (I suggest a whole day) 

7) Repeat steps 2) - 7) with blueberries, you can also use Cherries or other berry’s here for other jams.

8) The next day get your fully metal pan (or risk it with a non-stick one) and add the contents of your strawberry sugar bowl into the pan. Use a spatula to get all the sugar that is left at the bottom of the bowl into the pan. The overall mixture should be very liquid at this point.

9) Put your jam jar (or clean repurposed jar) on a baking tray and put into the oven, heated at 220C/ fan 200C/ gas 7. You do this as you need to sterilise the jars. To make sure that they are clean. 

10) Heat on a low/medium heat, mixing constantly with a wooden spoon. 

11) Once the sugar is dissolved into the mix, remove your wooden spoon and put in your temperature probe/thermometer, it must be able to read 105C, turn the heat up to medium high and leave at a hard boil (bubbling) 

12) Keep an eye on your temperature probe/thermometer. Once it hits 105C take it off the heat. 

13) Take your jar out of the oven and pour the mixture in your pan into the jar, it should fizzle a bit as the temperature of your oven is slightly hotter than your pan. Leave these to cool completely or to room temperature before you add your lid. This lid should have also been sterilised in the oven. 

14) Pour cold water into your now empty pan and return to the heat. Use this new water to scrub away any residue left from the jam you just made. Dispose of this water and then clean the pan fully. Clean your spatula, wooden spoon and temperature probe/thermometer (if needed) As the residue from the jam could make it difficult for your next jam. 

15) Now you are ready to repeat steps 8) - 14) for the blueberries (or other berry) sugar mixture. 

16) Now leave the jam until the next day, for it to set. You can put it in the fridge. But just leaving it, once sealed, outside the fridge will be enough for it to set. 

17) You now have jam, the next step is the mousse, this uses the next set of ingredients.

18) Boil your kettle/get boiling water and pour into a medium/small pan. Place a glass bowl on top of this pan, the bowl shouldn’t be touching the water. Break your Ecuador (71% Dark) Chocolate (or other chocolate) into this glass bowl and melt. Don’t put the hob on, just let the heat from your already boiled water melt the chocolate. If you do turn on the hob you have a higher chance of accidentally burning the chocolate.

19) While the chocolate is melting, we need to go back to our least favourite task: separating your two eggs. It can be easy, or a pain in the neck. All I can say is good luck. I dislike this part so much I use (and have used for years now) a form of measuring spoon which separates the egg yolks and whites. Once you have chosen your technique or equipment, get a jug out and split the egg using that. Put the egg yolks in a small bowl and put your egg whites into a jug. 

20) Measure out your double cream in a second jug. Or use a bowl if you don’t have two jugs. 

24) Using an electric whisk, whisk the egg whites until it has soft peaks. What do I mean by soft peaks?, glad you asked, It is very difficult to explain. Which is why in every recipe under the sun it uses this exact wording. Basically whisk it until the mix is not clear and when you remove your electric whisk (after turning it off, please don’t make that mistake) the mixture gets pulled up by the whisk heads and the “peak” shape that is formed falls/folds over. “Stiff peaks” is when the mixture makes this “peak” shape but doesn't fold over. That is when you can put it over your head and it won’t fall out of the bowl. Don’t do this with soft peaks. They are soft for a reason… 

25) Add your 1 tsp of caster sugar to the soft peak egg white and continue to whisk until it reaches stiff peaks. If you are confident that you’ve reached stiff peaks, flip the jug upside down over your head. It should stay in the jug. Over confident in your peaks? I give permission for anyone with you to tell you you have egg on your face.

26) Whisk your double cream until it also reaches stiff peaks. 

27) Now with your chocolate melted,take the bowl off of the pan onto another surface and mix in the two egg yolks as quickly as you can. It should form a mix that has a brownie mixture consistency. 

28) Using a spatula, scoop the egg whites and double cream into the chocolate mixture and fold it to incorporate. Folding?, glad you asked, it’s simple to do. Hard to do correctly. I suggest using a silicone spatula, scoop the mixture off of the edges of the bowl and in a single stroke cut through the centre of your mixture. Repeat this again, making sure to pull the bottom of the chocolate mixture to the top. This process takes a while. But it is all worth it after it mixes in properly and it has kept its volume (size). You may notice at this point the mousse looks pale to what you are expecting. This is why I suggest dark chocolate, as the strength gets “diluted” (sort of) by the double cream. 

29) Transfer this to a new bowl and cover with cling film and put this in the fridge for over 3 hours, or in the freezer for just over 1 hour 30 mins. Make sure it is set when you go to use it for the later steps/sections.

30) Now you have your mousse and jam you can move onto the Roulade stage, this uses the next set of ingredients.

31) Set your oven to 180C/fan 160C/ gas 4 

32) Break 3 eggs into a large bowl, no separating this time, with the caster sugar. Using an electric whisk, whisk the mixture for at least 8 mins. The mixture should have doubled in size and when you lift the whisk up you can slowly draw a figure of eight with some of the mixture and the whole figure of eight can be seen before it sinks back into the rest of the mixture. 

33) To a second, smaller, bowl measure out the plain flour, cocoa powder and baking powder. Mix with your ½ tablespoon (or tablespoon if you used that instead) measure. 

34) Sift this mix into your egg mixture bowl and fold into the mix to incorporate. See Folding? from step 28) 

35) Prepare a “large” tray (the longest tray you have that fits in your oven); using a teaspoon, measure out some butter and spread it onto the tray. This can be a teaspoon of butter if you want to use your hand to spread it around the tray (more fun) or smaller if you use a spare piece of baking parchment. This isn’t to coat the tray, this is to ensure the baking parchment sticks to the trays. Cut baking parchment to the size of your tray and cut into the sides near the corners to help it sink into the tray. Make sure to push the baking parchment into the tray. 

36) Pour your fully incorporated mixture into the tray. To get your mixture into the edges of the tray, pick up your tray and tilt it until the bottom of the entire tray is covered in mixture. Do tip your tray back to ensure the mix is evenly distributed. Do not use the spatula or wooden spoon for this. You spent all that time carefully folding your mixture and whisking your egg mixture beforehand. If you use something to spread your mixture around the tray it will knock out all the air these things added (and kept in) the mixture. So your mixture will not rize very well and may burn/overcook easier, which is never a good thing.

37) Put in the oven for 10 mins, Read steps 39) - 44) before this 10 mins is up as you have to act fast for these next few steps.

38) Get your jam(s) and mousse out of the fridge (or wherever you stored them) and get a knife to spread them, set them aside ready for construction. 

39) Once 10 mins is up, get a skewer (or a table knife like I do) and poke a hole into the largest (most risen) part of your bake. If it comes out clean, test the smallest (least risen) part. If both come out clean then your bake is done. If it isn’t cooked yet put it on for 2 more mins, repeat until it is cooked. If you are using a table knife ignore the crumbs you are getting on the end of your knife, only care if the mixture is moist and on the main part of the knife. 

40) When your bake is done, place a cutting board on top of the tray and flip it over. Remove the tray and the parchment paper. 

41) Spread the jam (using the knives you got out for them) onto the roulade. Separate it in half (or there about), cover one half with strawberry jam, the second half with blueberry jam. 42) Then apply the mousse, try to spread it out but don’t worry if you can’t. You could improvise, scraping small amounts onto the roulade.

43) Once you have run out of mousse, roll your roulade up, do this slowly to avoid breaking the sponge. Place the rolled roulade with the end, that is on the out most part (the opposite side you started with), down. So the weight of the roulade prevents it from unravelling.

44) Now this is done, let it cool completely, you can put this in the fridge to help it set if you want. You can now start on your buttercream icing, this uses the next set of ingredients.

45) Add the butter to a large bowl. Hopefully your butter is soft, you could leave it out to let it soften. If it is not soft, mix your butter in the bowl until it is soft. I know it sounds weird, mixing just butter in a bowl, but you need that butter to be soft so that it is easier to cream. 

46) Melt the Chocolate like you did in step 21) and let this mixture cool, but not set.

47) Once your butter is soft, Sift in your icing sugar into the bowl and cream to combine. Make sure not to mix too quickly, especially straight away or most of that icing sugar will end up in your face and all over your clothes. Every baker at one point in their life has done this. If they haven’t, then they haven’t truly baked. What do I mean by cream this together? Glad you asked. This method of incorporating butter and sugar (all sugar types) is probably the most common instruction in baking. As key to your baking success as shortening. Slightly tip your bowl and use a wooden spoon to press the butter into the sides of the bowl. The sides are covered in sugar so it’ll start to incorporate it. Use the spoon to scrape the mix away from the bowl edge and back into the main part of the bowl. Repeat this process until the sugar is completely combined. It will take you a long time the first time you do this but the more recipes you encounter, the more practice you’ll have and the faster it becomes. If you want to test the consistency, it should be similar to a brownie consistency. 

48) Add both the cocoa powder and milk then mix. You don’t have to cream at this point, just mix until there are no lumps.

49)Add this to your roulade by spooning most of your mixture on-top of the roulade using a spoon, or a palette knife, and spread the mix to cover the roulade. Add more icing, always starting from the top, until the sides are covered. Use the remaining mixture to cover the circular sides of the roulade. This part is annoying and can be a challenge if your mix is too runny. If your mixture is too runny, put it into the fridge for a minute or two to make it keep its structure more. 

50) Now you can complete this recipe by adding the chocolate decoration, this uses the last set of ingredients.

51) This part is optional, suggested, but optional. If you want you can cut up your “The Yule Log” right now and eat it. I suggest using a bread knife to cut your roulade as it is very large. You can use a normal kitchen knife, but it’s more difficult to cut and serve.

52) If you are still here grate, now get a grater and grate some chocolate over your log. I suggest putting your chocolate in the fridge before using it to try and help it not melt in your hand. As this is quite funny to watch someone grate a bar of chocolate while it’s melting in your hand or so I’ve been told.