We love to repeat other people's traditions, especially if it is tasty, fun or beautiful! That wonderful French tradition of cooking Christmas logs pleased us.
Each mistress makes a Christmas log in her own way, it is not necessary to repeat the classic recipe. Here are my children love the curd-orange version of "log" and make it yourself.
Give it a try! It takes about 1 hour 45 minutes to prepare.
Ingredients:
Eggs - 6 pieces small or 5 pieces large
Sugar - a little less than a glass in the dough (200 grams)
Powdered sugar in a cream - 250 grams (in extreme cases, sugar can be used)
Flour - a glass (necessary to sift)
Cocoa powder - 2-3 tablespoons
Big orange
Any jam (thick) - 150 grams
Custard milk - 300 grams
Butter - 250 grams (room temperature)
Custard Blend Package (Optional)
Chocolate - 100 grams (preferably dark, bitter)
Any cottage cheese - 200 grams (always fresh)
Cognac (for aroma) - 1 st. spoon (optional component)
Cooking process:
Getting started from a biscuit base. Wash the eggs (always!), Break them and begin to beat at a slow mixer speed.
Gradually pour sugar in small portions. Note the time: beat for 8 minutes, then increase the speed and work with the mixer for another 5 minutes.
Turn off the mixer. Take a hand whisk and very carefully pour the sifted flour and cocoa into the dough.
We move the whisk slowly in a circle in one direction and try to mix the flour into the proteins without precipitating them. We make movements in a circle and from the bottom up. The dough is very tender. For this operation you need to spend no more than two minutes.
If you decide to knead the flour in the dough with a mixer, know that the dough will settle and the biscuit will be tough (we tried!).
If the dough still settles, add half a teaspoon of baking powder to it, this will save the biscuit.
Pour the dough onto a baking sheet previously covered with baking paper. Layer thickness matters! It is necessary that the dough layer does not exceed 5-8 mm, because the biscuit will also rise!
We put the biscuit in the preheated oven for 13-15 minutes, the temperature is 180-200 C. The first 10 minutes, the oven should never be opened! And after - carefully watch that the biscuit does not burn.
While the biscuit is baking, let's do the internal filling.
Remove the zest from the orange. It's simple.
Put jam in a plate. Pour the zest. Add cognac and a little bit of orange juice. Stir.
That's all. The first filling is ready.
Now we will do custard. It is fast.
The contents of the package are diluted with 100 grams of milk. Boil another 200 grams of milk in a saucepan.
As soon as the milk boils, pour the mixture with cold milk into the saucepan. Carefully pour in a thin stream. And we interfere, interfere, interfere ... two minutes and you can remove the cream from the stove. Let it cool.
The sponge cake is probably ready!
Attention. We get the pan. We wet with cold water and wring a waffle towel. We put a wet towel directly on the biscuit, turn it with the towel down and turn it into a roll.
We leave it in this form to cool.
Back to the custard. Add cottage cheese to it and beat thoroughly. Cool.
If you do not have custard, it does not matter. Just beat the cottage cheese with sugar (3 tbsp.) And add starch (1 tbsp. Spoon) - it will also be delicious!
While the roll is cooling and the curd cream is cooling, it's time to get cream for decorating the Christmas log. The purpose of this cream is to become a "bark", it should keep its shape well and imitate the bark of trees in color.
Color gives melted chocolate.
We throw in a saucepan a piece of butter and crumble the chocolate bar, slightly heat and mix.
Melted chocolate should be taken out in the cold, cool.
While the chocolate cools, expand our roll. Spread it well with jam with orange zest.
Let's give time, let the jam soak. 5-10 minutes. Then, on the jam, evenly distribute the cooled curd cream, departing from the edges by 2 cm.
The most interesting moment is turn the roll. We’re not in a hurry, we turn the “log” tight enough. We fix the roll with a towel and take it out to the cold. For half an hour no less.
It's time to do butter cream, which will soon have to cover the "log". The cooled melted chocolate is mixed with butter (room temperature), first at a low speed.
Pour the icing sugar into the cream and intensively beat for about 10 minutes. If there is no icing sugar, you can pour granulated sugar, but not everyone can wait for it to dissolve in the cream. Most likely, grains of sand will remain in the cream and will crunch on the teeth when tasting Christmas log.
See how the color of the cream changed during the whipping process. If necessary, add a spoonful of other cocoa powder. The cream volume doubled. It's time to put it in the cold!
You can decorate the Christmas log in 20 minutes, or in a day. As you wish.
We get the roll. Cooking dish for serving. Sharp knife.
At the roll, we cut the edges obliquely and fit them to the “log”, as if they were cut branches.
We cover all the logs with chocolate cream. You can use a pastry bag, a bag with a cut tip or just a spoon.
Then begins the flight of fantasy. From sweets and marmalade, yielding to a creative impulse, we cut out decor elements (leaves, flowers, etc.). You can use ready-made decorations or chocolates, making of them, say, mushroom caps.
The ends of the cuts of the Christmas log can also be painted, repeating the pattern of the saw cut tree.
With a fork or wooden stick, draw the furrows on the “bark”. In general, we decorate the cake than we can.
That's all! Do not forget to take a picture of your work of art in order to recall a bright holiday and a merry Christmas Eve on occasion.
After all, the Christmas log is as beautiful as it is short-lived. It would seem that you just cut a piece and place it on a festive plate, like ....
Bon appetit and merry Christmas to you!
