Milk chocolate, caramel and apple yule log
Christmas time is the best time of the year to bake. Seems like everybody wants to do it, and everybody is willing to eat more, so that’s the perfect combination!
Here in France, the bûche de Noël, aka the yule log, is a must: this year I tried to invent my own recipe of a modern log and it was awesome!
Ok, it took me basically a whole weekend (almost), but I’m glad it came out so tasty and balanced.
The cake features:
- A buttery and crunchy shortbread at the base
- A spread of salted caramel sauce
- A layer of caramelized apples with cinnamon
- Almond spongecake
- Milk chocolate mousse
- Milk chocolate mirror glaze
I was afraid that the milk chocolate + caramel + everything else would be too sweet, but the log turned out fine, and oooh… the pleasure of covering a cake with mirror glaze…!!!
This is definitely something that you can proudly offer your family or friends for Christmas, my friends really enjoyed it!
(But if you make it, make sure you start the day before! Actually everything, apart from the chocolate mousse, can be prepared in advance)
And you, what cake will you make this Christmas? 🙂
Milk chocolate, caramel and apple yule log
Print recipeIngredients
Shortbread
| 85g | Salted butter |
| 105g | Pastry flour |
| 40g | Icing sugar |
| 1 | Egg yolk |
Milk chocolate mirror glaze
| 150 | Granulated sugar |
| 150 | Glucose syrup |
| 80 | Water |
| 100 | Sweetened concentrated milk |
| 150 | Milk chocolate |
| 8 | Sheet gelatin |
Salted caramel
| 50g | Granulated sugar |
| 120g | Heavy cream |
| 1 tablespoon | Unsalted butter |
| 1 pinch | Fleur-de-sel |
Almond spongecake
| 60g | Egg whites |
| 60g | Granulated sugar |
| 50g | Eggs |
| 20g | Egg yolks |
| 65g | Almond flour |
| 20g | Pastry flour |
| 1 pinch | Fleur-de-sel |
| 70g | Unsalted butter |
Apples with cinnamon
| 2 | Granny Smith apples |
| 15g | Unsalted butter |
| 20g | Brown sugar |
| 1 teaspoon | Cinnamon |
Milk chocolate mousse
| 40g | Water |
| 80g | Granulated sugar |
| 80g | Egg yolks |
| 4g | Sheet gelatin |
| 250g | Milk chocolate |
| 360g | Heavy cream |
Decoration
| As needed | Decorations made with tempered chocolate |
Directions
Shortbread
1
Place all the ingredients in the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment
2
Mix at medium speed for a few minutes until a thick dough forms. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
3
Roll the dough out to 5mm between two sheets of parchment paper
4
Bake at 160°C for 18 minutes, then cut a stripe of shortbread slightly smaller than the base of the log
Milk chocolate mirror glaze
5
Let the gelatin soak in cold water. In the meantime, bring the water, sugar and glucose syrup to a boil on medium heat.
6
Remove from the heat and add the concentrated milk and the squeezed gelatin
7
Finally add the chocolate and stir without incorporating air. Mix with an immersion blender and refrigerate overnight
Caramel
8
Heat the sugar in a saucepan on medium heat
9
When it starts caramelizing, you can stir and then add the boiling cream.
10
Keep stirring for a few seconds. Make sure everything is melted then place in a clean bowl, add the butter and salt and refrigerate.
Almond spongecake
11
Whip the egg whites to stiff peaks with 60g of sugar at medium speed
12
In a bowl, mix the eggs, yolks and sugar
13
Add the almond flour, flour and fleur-de-sel
14
Melt the butter, let it come down to room temperature then pour it over the batter and stir gently
15
Lighten the butter with one third of the whipped egg whites
16
Incorporate the rest of the egg whites with an upward movement using a spatula, taking care not to deflate the batter
17
Spread the batter on a parchment-lined baking tray. Bake at 160°C for 14 minutes, then cut a stripe so that it fits inside your log mold.
Apples with cinnamon
18
In a saucepan on low heat, melt the butter and add the finely diced apples
19
Add the sugar and the cinnamon and cook for around 10 minutes
Milk chocolate mousse
20
Prepare a sugar syrup with the water and sugar and bring to a boil
21
Start whipping the egg yolks at high speed and in the meantime let the gelatin soften in cold water. When the syrup reaches 118°C, pour it slowly but steadily over the foamy yolks, along the side of the bowl, after reducing the speed to medium.
22
Add the gelatin to the warm yolk mixture and keep on mixing until the pâte à bombe reaches room temperature
23
Whisk in the hot, melted chocolate in the pâte à bombe
24
Add one third of the cream and whisk
25
With a spatula, fold in gently the remaining cream
26
Pipe some chocolate mousse on the bottom of a 25cm-wide log mold and make sure all the side are well covered
Assembling
27
Add a stripe of almond spongecake
28
Pipe some more chocolate mousse
29
Place the diced apples
30
Cover the shortbread with salted caramel
31
Place the shortbread in the mold
32
Finally cover with the remaining chocolate mousse and freeze for at least 6 hours
33
Place the frozen cake on a wire-rack over a tray to collect the excess glaze. Heat the mirror glaze at 37°C and pour it over the frozen cake.
34
Optionally add decorations made with tempered chocolate. Remember to remove the cake from the fridge 10 minutes before serving.
