yule log | Cecile's Cuisine

When you live in Europe or France, and you need an ingredient for a recipe, you can go to any supermarket and just get it because they would have the item that the recipe demands. Unfortunately, most American supermarkets does not carry all the ingredients that i was accustomed to work with, or play with in Europe which can make your cooking experience a bit of a challenge or a scavenger hunt. Over the years that I have been in the USA, I have learned to either bring those coveted items back with me, or find internet sites that either sell them, or explain how I can make them myself.

So this is how, I learned to make pistachio paste, Pralin, Chestnut Puree.

This weekend I wanted to make a Buche de Noel ( Yule Log) and the recipe called for Boudoirs, or Lady Fingers… But I could not find them in any store so I had to make them.

So here is the recipe. It is one of the easiest thing to make, it is fast and you make lots of cookies at once that keep really well in an airtight container.

Ingredients for about 50 individual cookies:

3 eggs separated
63 grams of sugar
1 tsp of vanilla extract ( I am using the vanilla bean Paste from Nielsen Massey found at the Fresh Market)
32 gr. of flour
32 gr. of corn starch or even potato starch
powdered sugar

Separate the eggs and place the egg whites into a mixer. Beat the egg whites into hard peaks.
When you have reached this texture, add the egg yolks and blend them in.
Then sift the corn starch and the flour and add it gently to the egg whites.
Add 1 tsp of vanilla extract.
Fill a pastry bag and draw small sticks of about 1/2 inch by 2 inches on large silpat that you would have placed on a large perforated sheet.
Dust some powdered sugar all over the “cookies”.
Bake the cookies in the oven for 12 minutes at 338 or until they become a very pale yellow.
Remove them from the oven and let them cool down at room temperature. Keep in an airtight container so that they will stay hard ( can keep for several weeks).

And with those wonderful cookies, I was able to make my Vanilla and Chocolate Buche de Noel. Yum….

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!!

Lady Fingers or Biscuits Cuilleres

Servings: 12-16
Time: 15 minutes
Difficulty: Very Easy
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Ingredients for about 50 individual cookies:

3 eggs separated
63 grams of sugar
1 tsp of vanilla extract ( i am using the vanilla bean)
32 gr. of flour
32 gr. of corn starch or even potato starch
powdered sugar

Separate the eggs and place the egg whites into a mixer. Beat the egg whites into hard peaks.
When you have reached this texture, add the egg yolks and blend them in.
Then sift the corn starch and the flour and add it gently to the egg whites.
Add 1 tsp of vanilla extract.
Fill a pastry bag, and draw small sticks of about 1/2 inch by 2 inches on large perforated sheet that you would have placed on a large perforated sheet.
Dust some powdered sugar all over the “cookies”.
Bake the cookies in the oven for 12 minutes at 338 or until they become a very pale yellow.
Remove them from the oven and let them cool down at room temperature. Keep in a airtight container so that they will stay hard ( can keep for several weeks).

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!!

Please share this post if you like it and post your comments. Merci Beaucoup!!!

Christmas would not be Christmas without a buche de Noel or Yule Log. Usually I make the Buche de Noel for Christmas day. And I always, always make the one my mom used to make. It brings so many memories…And I posted the recipe last year. Check it out.

Well on Christmas eve, we always go to my in-laws for the “Reveillon”. My mother -in-law prepares the tradition German “Pasteten” and the rest of the family brings various dishes to help her out. It can be sides, appetizers, and desserts… So guess what I am in charge for?? desserts of course.

Every year i always bring a “lighter dessert” to serve for the evening. It is never a cake, because by the time desserts come, it is always very late and we are already full. In the past I brought various ice-cream and sorbets that i made. This year I brought a frozen desserts out of mango and raspberry sorbet, and a buche de noel. I know.. not that light, but this buche de Noel was made out of chocolate and seemed to be a lighter version of the original recipe. so this is what I served and this is also the one I will share with you today. It is so so easy, and everybody loved it.

Ingredients for 1 buche de Noel for 6-8 people:

For the Cake:

6 eggs separated
150 gr. of sugar
50 gr. of cocoa powder

For the “chocolate frosting:

250 gr. of chocolate chips ( I used bittersweet Ghiradhelli chocolate chips)
200 gr. of butter
50 gr. of brown sugar
2 tbsp of milk
1/2 tsp of vanilla extract

For the Filling:

300 ml. of heavy cream
2 tbsp of granulated sugar

Place the egg yolks in a large bowl and add the sugar. Whip well so as so get a fluffy whitish mixture.

Add the cocoa and mix well. Set aside. In a kitchen mixer, whip the egg whites into a meringue with soft peaks. Then carefully with a spatula, mix the “meringue” into the chocolate mixture.

Pour this mixture into a flexipan and cook in a warm oven at 350 for 12 minutes.

When the cake is cooked, let it cool for a few minutes before rolling it into itself while still warm. You will need to do this while it is warm, or the cake will break if you do not.

While the cake is cooling. Prepare the chocolate frosting. In a microwave bowl, place the chocolate chips, and the butter and microwave for 2 minutes or until the butter and the chocolate have melted. With a small whisk, mix well so that the mixture becomes homogeneous. Add the brown sugar and microwave for another 1 minute. Let it cool. When it is lukewarm, place this mixture into the fridge or even freezer to cool it ever more.

In a mixer, add the heavy cream and the sugar and beat until the cream becomes a whipped cream with hard peaks.

To prepare the buche de noel, unroll the cake. Spread some of the chocolate frosting on the cake. Then place the cake into the fridge for the frosting to harden. When the frosting is hard, spread the whipped cream all over the chocolate frosting. Carefully roll the cake onto itself.

With the rest of the frosting, “frost” the outside of the log. Then with a fork, make marks on the cake make it look like wood grain. Decorate as you like.

I decorated my cake with chocolate leaves, red chocolate covered hazelnuts to make them look like holly fruit. I also molded mushrooms out of marzipan paste. When you are finished decorating, place the cake in the fridge to keep it cool. But take it 0ut of the fridge for 30 minutes before eating it.