Yule Log

The Winter Solstice, also known as Yule, is the shortest day of the year with only about 8 hours of light out of the 24.  I like to acknowledge Yule every year, partly because it is nice to think that after that day it will start being lighter for longer, but also because it has it's own special cake and I will celebrate just about anything if I can make a nice cake for it.  The cake for Winter Solstice is known as a Yule log and I'm sure most people will have heard of it.

Traditionally Yule logs were actual logs which you brought into the house and decorated, then saved until the following year to burn on the fire.  Not many people have log fires any more so it would not make much sense for people to bring real logs into the house.  At some point people started making a chocolate cake in the shape of a log instead of bringing in a real one and this practice has continued.  Chocolate Yule logs are commonly found in shops around Christmas time, though most people do not know their significance and don't even know that Yule is a day in it's own right.  I am the kind of person who does not like to just blindly follow traditions, I like to know the meanings behind the traditions first, otherwise how would I know what I am celebrating?

A Yule log is made in a similar way to a swiss roll, very apt for a representative log since it has the circles inside it which look like the rings in trees.  I don't have a recipe which I use every year, I probably should come up with one, so I just look up one on the internet each time.  This year I used a recipe from the Good Food website, though I did not follow their icing recipe.  Here is a summarised version of the recipe:

Ingredients:
5 eggs
140g light brown sugar
100g S.R. flour
25g cocoa

Equipment:
Swiss roll tin
Baking Parchment
Electric whisk (you can use a normal whisk but it will take much longer)
Chopping board covered in foil

Method:

1. Put the oven on at 190 degrees or gas mark 5 and line your swiss roll tin
2. Separate the eggs, add the sugar and 2tbs of water to the yolks and whisk with the electric whisk until thick and pale.  Then sift in the flour and cocoa and fold it in.
3. Clean the whisk and use it to whip up the egg whites until they are stiff, then fold them into the other mixture, making sure to beat a spoonful in first to loosen it up.
4. Pour the mixture into the tin, spreading it very carefully to the edges, lift the tin up and tilt it to each side so that the mixture is even.
5. Bake in the oven for 10-12 mins or until firm to the touch.
6. Lay out a large piece of baking parchment on the work surface and sprinkle with caster sugar - this will stop the cake from sticking.  When the cake is out of the oven tip it over onto this paper and peel off the lining, cover with a clean tea towel and leave to cool completely.
7. Trim a little cake from each edge and score along one of the long edges, then roll up the cake with the paper, don't take the paper off yet, this is just to keep the cake in shape while you make the icing.

Instead of making ganache which the recipe says to make, I made chocolate buttercream icing, I am not saying that it is better, I just didn't have the ingredients or time to make ganache so I did what was easier for me.  I'm afraid I also don't have a recipe for it since the way I make buttercream is to just add ingredients together until it tastes nice.  I used a few tablespoons of margarine then added icing sugar, cocoa powder and a bit of melted chocolate and just kept adding the icing sugar and cocoa until it was the right flavour, colour and consistency.  After making it I unrolled the cake, spread some icing on it, then rolled it up again, making sure to peel the paper off as I went.  Then I cut some of the cake off and placed the two pieces on a board in the shape I wanted, then spread the rest of the icing over it all.  After this I got a fork and scraped lines into the icing to give it a more log-like look, put a bit of holly on it for decoration and then sprinkled it all with icing sugar.

Et voila, my very own chocolate Yule log.

Chocolate Brownies

I have been meaning to post this recipe for a long time as it is one of my favourite recipes and a friend of mine requested I put it up so that she can make them herself.  I discovered this recipe for chocolate brownies in my first year of university when I became friends with a girl who turned out to be a coeliac.  I am the kind of person who, if I am baking for a group of people, it has to suit everyone's needs/tastes so, even though she said she is used to missing out on cakes and it was fine for me to just make things for everyone else, I was not having any of that and I searched the internet to find a recipe which was both gluten free and delicious.  This is what I came up with;

Ingredients:

75g dark chocolate

100g butter

200g sugar

2 eggs

1tsp vanilla extract

75g ground almonds

1tsp baking powder

100g chopped walnuts

1. Grease and line a 20cm square cake tin and preheat the oven to 180 degrees
2. Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water then take off the heat
3. Cream the butter and sugar
4. Mix in the eggs, vanilla and chocolate (make sure the chocolate is not too hot because otherwise it will cook the eggs and that would not be nice)
5. Stir in the ground almonds, baking powder and walnuts making sure it is all incorporated
6. Spoon the mixture into the tin and spread out slightly
7. Put in the oven for 30-35 minutes
8. Leave to cool completely before taking out of the tin and cutting up into squares

This recipe makes about 16 brownies

These brownies are deliciously gooey and chocolatey with a crisp top and slight crunch of the walnuts, if you don't like walnuts feel free to not include them, I just think they add an extra something to the mix.  They may be gluten free but personally I think they are even better than glutenous ones which is a fairly unusual occurrence, since a lot of gluten free options are not exactly amazing.  I think these ones work well because they use ground almonds instead of a substitute flour - I find I can't get on with gluten free flour.

Chocolate and Amaretto Mousse

I have tried many times to make chocolate mousse and most have been a success but this is by far the best recipe that I have used.  It gives a delicious moussey, creamy texture and is delightfully sweet but not sickly.  Definitely give it a try, if you do not like amaretto then another spirit such as Cointreau or rum could be used, or you could just make it without and do a plain chocolate mousse which is very good too.

Ingredients Serves 6:
6 eggs
200ml double cream
100g caster sugar
3 shots amaretto
200g dark chocolate

Method:

• Melt the chocolate in a bowl over slightly simmering water
• Separate the eggs with the yolks in one bowl and the whites in another
• Whip up the egg whites into stiff peaks
• Mix the yolks with the caster sugar and amaretto
• Whip the cream until it is thick
• Mix the cream with the egg yolk mixture and the melted chocolate
• Fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture very gently but making sure that it is properly mixed
• Spoon into ramekins or a large dish
• Put in the fridge for at least an hour to set

This is a fairly easy recipe although it uses a lot of bowls and there is a fair amount of whisking involved, I recommend an electric whisk.  The main difficulty in this recipe is the melting of the chocolate, you must make sure that you do not overheat it but at the same time, it must be warm enough so that when mixed with the eggs and cream it does not start to solidify.  Other than that, it is perfectly easy.

Rum Truffles

My friend Claire has recently been telling me about all the different kinds of truffles she's been making and it made me want to do it myself.  I had some rum left over from some previous cocktail making and thought that making truffles out of it would be the best use for it (as well as the fiery mojitos which were made on the same day).

If you want to make some yourself you will need these ingredients:

400g good quality dark chocolate

200ml double cream

20g butter

2 tablespoons of white rum

Chocolate strands

Heat up the butter and cream to not quite boiling and then pour over the broken up chocolate.  When the chocolate is melted mix it all up with the rum then put the mixture in the fridge until it is set, which should be about an hour or more.  Then take it out and roll into little balls and roll in the chocolate strands.

I made these truffles with white rum but they could be just as easily made with any other kind of alcohol or even non-alcoholic flavourings.  Other things than chocolate strands could also be used such as cocoa powder or icing sugar, even hundreds and thousands if you want to add a bit of colour.  Add whatever you want really as long as you have the basic chocolate, butter and cream mixture.