Praline Chocolate Yule Log; fluffy chocolate cake rolled around hazelnut praline paste and smooth chocolate ganache, perfect for the festive season.
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The only thing better than enjoying your own country’s traditional Christmas desserts is squeezing in as many Christmas desserts from everywhere into your festive baking as possible.
German lebkuchen, Italian panettone, Scandinavian kransekake, and, of course, French bûche de Noël. The latter is what we call a Yule Log, and a Yule Log is the muse of today’s ramblings.
A far cry from the heavy, alcohol-sodden puddings of British tradition, the Yule Log is a light bake with impressive results. You won’t need hours and hours of slow cooking, just a few minutes in the oven and a little care in decorating will provide a perfect festive centrepiece.
The Yule Log is most often made of a flourless chocolate sponge cake, using fluffy egg whites instead of baking powder or bicarbonate of soda. This lack of flour not only makes the cake incidentally gluten free but wonderfully light and souffle-like. The cake is then rolled around praline paste and rich whipped chocolate ganache, before being dressed in more ganache and decorated like a winter tree trunk.
Sink your fork through the layer of creamy ganache, offering both subtlety and boldness, into the fluffiest chocolate sponge. While this Praline Chocolate Yule Log looks like the height of indulgence, it’s actually quite a delicate dessert.
The chocolate elements of today’s Praline Chocolate Yule Log are brought to you by the wonderful people at Cocoa Runners. Their new range of cooking chocolate is utterly perfect for baking into desserts, or creating frostings and ganaches to decorate cakes. I used their cocoa powder to add a deep cocoa flavour to the flourless chocolate cake in this Yule Log – it’s so much better than the flat or stale chocolate flavour that comes from supermarket cocoa powders. In that gorgeous chocolate ganache you see pictured, I used their 63% cocoa dark chocolate (but their 44% cocoa milk chocolate would also work well). The smoothness of the dark chocolate is perfect for using in ganache, it doesn’t have any of the burnt bitter flavour that comes with big brand dark chocolates that are rushed through production. Cocoa Runners is all about celebrating craft chocolate, traded fairly and made with care to ensure that the end product is every bit as delicious and luxurious as it should be.
Oh, and you can use MaverickBaking10 for 10% off Cocoa Runners chocolate!
I also feel compelled to talk about the Praline element of this Praline Chocolate Yule Log. I would endlessly recommend treating yourself to some pastry chef style praline paste, made with a blend of sugar and either almonds or hazelnuts. However, these products can be a bit expensive, or only available in 1kg catering containers. On that basis, I would encourage you (as always) to get creative and use whatever you have in your kitchen or whatever you just love to eat. You could swap out the praline paste for shop-bought salted caramel, crunchy peanut butter, Nutella, Biscoff, or any other spread you would pair with chocolate. It will still create a gorgeous festive Chocolate Yule Log.
The only things I would strictly encourage you to have to hand are a Swiss roll tin, that being a large flat baking tray to non-UK readers, and some greaseproof paper. They’re just about the only ingredients or equipment that couldn’t be creatively replaced in this recipe.
Oh, and do please refrain from worrying too much about the rolling and decorating of this Praline Chocolate Yule Log. It may appear fiddly by the instructions but let’s be honest, there is no mistake that a generous amount of chocolate ganache and icing sugar can’t cover!
I hope you guys enjoy this Praline Chocolate Yule Log as much as we have. It’s definitely one I’ll be making more than once over this cold month. Stay happy, stay healthy, and thanks as always for stopping by.
If you want to save this Praline Chocolate Yule Log for later, pin the image below!
To make this Praline Chocolate Yule Log, simply follow the recipe below.
Praline Chocolate Yule Log
Notes
BE A MAVERICK: Why not swap out the praline paste for your favourite spread? You could use salted caramel, peanut butter, Nutella, Biscoff, or anything else that pairs well with chocolate!
This Praline Chocolate Yule Log will keep well in an airtight container or on a covered cake stand for up to 3 days. No need to refrigerate, unless you live somewhere warm, or you prefer cold cake!
Ingredients
For the chocolate cake:
- 6 large eggs (separated into yolks and whites)
- 130g (rounded ½ cup) caster sugar
- 50g (⅓ cup) cocoa powder (I use Cocoa Runners cocoa powder)
- Pinch of icing sugar
For the praline and chocolate ganache:
- 400ml (1 ¾ cups) double or whipping cream
- 300g (10 ½ oz) milk or dark chocolate pieces (I use Cocoa Runners 44% milk chocolate or 63% dark chocolate)
- 2 tbsp runny honey (only if using dark chocolate)
- Pinch of salt
- 100g (6 ½ tbsp) praline paste, you could also use Nutella, Peanut Butter, Biscoff or your favourite spread!
- Pinch of icing sugar, to decorate
Instructions
For the chocolate cake:
- Preheat your oven to 180°C / 160°C fan / gas mark 4 / 350ºF.
- Line a Swiss roll tin (most are of similar size so any should work!) with greaseproof paper, leaving an overhang at the sides. This will help you lift the cake out once baked.
- In a large bowl, or freestanding mixer, whisk the egg whites until thick and holding stiff peaks.
- Sprinkle in 30g of the caster sugar and keep whisking for another 1-2 until the whites are glossy and holding their peaks again. Set aside.
- In another large bowl, whisk the egg yolks and the remaining caster sugar until the mixture is airy, pale and thick.
- Add the cocoa powder to the yolk mixture and whisk for 30 seconds or until just combined.
- Loosen the yolk mixture by stirring in a big dollop of your fluffy egg whites.
- Add the remaining whites in two stages, folding them in very carefully to avoid losing the air.
- Pour your fluffy cake mixture into the prepared tin and gently smooth it out.
- Bake it in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, by which point it should be risen and puffy with no wobble when shaken.
- Allow the cake to cool while you prepare your ganache.
For the praline and chocolate ganache:
- In a small saucepan, heat your cream until it is gently steaming and hot to the touch.
- Remove from the heat and add the chocolate, honey (if using) and salt. Allow to stand for 1 minute.
- Stir your ganache mixture until smooth and thick. Allow to thicken and cool in the fridge or by an open window for 30 minutes until thickened further.
- Once thickened, use a manual or electric whisk to whip the ganache until it is paler and fluffier. This should take no more than 1-2 minutes.
- To begin assembling the Yule Log, turn the cake out onto a large piece of greaseproof paper dusted with a handful of icing sugar. This paper is to help you roll up the cake later, and the sugar to prevent it from sticking!
- Spread a thin layer of the praline paste (or your chosen spread) all over your cooled sponge.
- Spread a quarter of your whipped ganache over the praline layer.
- Time to roll the cake into a log. Start rolling from the long side furthest away from you, taking care to get a tight roll from the beginning, and roll up to the other long side. Use the paper to help lift and press the cake while you roll (instead of damaging the cake).
- Once rolled, gently lift your cake log onto your serving plate.
- Cut 3cm (1in) off the edges of the log at an angle, and press them together at one side of the cake to act almost like a broken branch.
- Evenly spread the Yule Log with a generous layer of the remaining ganache (you may not need it all), covering the ends as well as the branch.
- Gently draw a fork through the ganache to give it a wooden effect. Draw circles with the fork at the ends of the log and branch.
- Dust with some icing sugar, and decorate as you like.
- Slice up and enjoy!
Where can you buy the praline paste?
Hello Bea! Usually Amazon is my first stop, either for large catering sizes or smaller jars. This is the praline paste I use: https://amzn.to/2PtbM9r