Chocolate-Orange Yule Log; A Christmas Showstopper

If you want a showstopper for your Christmas table, a yule log always hits the spot. I've been making this chocolate orange yule log for a couple years now. It's a lot of work, but worth it and I'm excited to share it with you all.

There are many components to the cake and it's a lot of work. It's a genoise sponge cake, a blood orange syrup, a blood orange ginger curd, merengue mushrooms, and dark chocolate frosting. Each component of the cake is good on its own, though, and has other uses, so I've timestamped each part of the cake. If nothing else, you should make the curd and eat it with toast or leftover dinner rolls.

Timestamps:
0:00 Merry Whatever!
0:17 Orange Curd
2:08 Orange Syrup
2:48 Merengue Mushrooms
7:48 Genoise Cake
11:08 Dark Chocolate Frosting
12:37 Assembly!

DAY ONE: (the day before service)

curd:

beat in a medium pot until pale yellow:
1/2 minus 1 TBS cup sugar
1 whole egg
3 egg yolks (*save the whites for the merengue!)
The zest of 1-2 oranges

Add:
1/3 cup orange juice
10 green cardamom pods
2 TBS minced candied ginger
6 TBS butter, cut into tiny cubes

Put on medium heat and stir until the butter dissolves. Then beat constantly until the mixture thickens and simmers slightly for a few seconds. Leave in the pot, stirring occasionally, until room temperature. Then pick out the cardamom pods and store in the fridge overnight.

syrup:
heaping half cup orange juice
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbs triple sec

Simmer until the mixture is about 1/4 cup. Cool, then store in the fridge.

merengue mushrooms:

preheat oven to 225.

Combine in a large metal bowl:
1/4 cup egg whites (about 2 eggwhites)
1/4 tsp Cream of tartar
1/2 tsp vanilla

Beat until soft peaks form. Then add slowly, 1 TBS at a time:
1/2 cup superfine sugar

Beat until very stiff peaks form. Pour mixture into a piping bag with a plain half inch tip (or just cut an opening in a bag that big) and pipe an equal number of kisses and stems onto a cookie sheet with parchment.

Use a wet finger to press down the mushroom cap tops and dust with:
Unsweetened cocoa powder

Bake for 2 hours until the mushrooms are dry. Turn off the oven and leave the merengues in the oven until the oven gets cold.

Paint the "bottom" sides of the mushroom caps with a layer of melted dark chocolate, then attack a stem. Keep in an airtight container for up to 4 weeks.

DAY TWO:

cake: half a genoise baked in a 9x13 pan for 15 min.

You need to bake a specific kind of sponge cake for jelly rolls for this to work as a roll cake. Do not attempt this with any old cake.

Grease, flour, and line a 9x13 inch cake pan with parchment paper.

Sift into a bowl and have ready:
1/2 cup plus 2 TBS cake flour
2 TBS sugar

In a glass bowl over barely simmering water, beat:

3 eggs
3/8 cup sugar

Beat until pale yellow and they've reached a temperature of 110 degrees. Remove from the heat and beat for 5-15 minutes (it takes more time if you're using a hand mixer instead of a stand mixer) until they reach the ribbon stage.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In 3 batches, sift the dry mixture into the eggs, folding gently to combine.

In a cereal bowl:
3 TBS melted butter
1/2 tsp vanilla

Take 3/4 cup of the cake batter and fold it into the butter. Once it's smooth, add that mixture to the rest of the cake batter and fold until just combined. DO NOT OVERMIX.

Pour batter into cake pan and bake for 15 minutes or until just done. DO NOT OVERBAKE.

Flip out of the pan, remove parchment, then flip back rightside-up to cool on a wire rack.

Dark chocolate glaze:

In a double boiler, melt:

1 cup dark chocolate chips

Add slowly, stirring as you go:

6 TBS butter

Stir in:
2 TBS hot water
2 TBS hot triple sec

Cool to room temp. It should have a frosting consistency. DO NOT BEAT. (if you do this, the frosting will get dry, hard, and crumbly.) If your room is cold, you might want to pop the frosting into the microwave for 10-20 seconds to soften up before frosting it on the log.
ASSEMBLY:

Trim the ends off the cake to even it out. Flip it upside-down.

Spread the "underside" of the cake with the orange syrup (warm it up so it's spreadable.)

Spread on the curd, leaving an inch uncovered at one end.

Roll the cake. There are many tricks I've seen other cooks use (such as, rolling the cake in a tea towel just after it comes out of the oven) but the hard truth is: you will not always succeed. Your cake might crack. Just keep going and do your best.

Frost the log in the chocolate frosting, making decorative marks with a fork.

Garnish with merengue mushrooms.

I like to let the cake sit for a couple hours in a cool kitchen (or in the fridge if your kitchen is hot) before cutting into it.

Store the cake in the fridge. It will keep up to a week. To serve leftover cake, pop a slice into the microwave on medium for 20 seconds or so to soften the chocolate frosting (it will firm up like truffles when cold.)

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Видео Chocolate-Orange Yule Log; A Christmas Showstopper канала Sarah Loves Food