Spiced chestnut and white chocolate yule log recipe | Sainsbury`s Magazine (2024)

FAQs

What is a chocolate Yule log made of? ›

Butter and line a 23 x 32cm Swiss roll tin with baking parchment. Beat the eggs and golden caster sugar together with an electric whisk for about 8 mins until thick and creamy. Mix the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder together, then sift onto the egg mixture. Fold in very carefully, then pour into the tin.

Spread some of the icing thinly over the sponge, going right out to the edges. Start rolling from the long side facing you, taking care to get a tight roll from the beginning, and roll up to the other side. Pressing against the parchment, rather than the tender cake, makes this easier.

Vin doux naturels (natural sweet wines) are good candidates to accompany the traditional log. Among the different options available, try the log with Muscat-Beaume-de-Venise, white Banyuls, Sauternes, Coteaux du Layon, Quarts de Chaume or sweet wine from Alsace, such as Vendange Tardive or Sélection de Grais Nobles.

the tradition of the yule log:

The yule log was, in fact, a full tree brought into the house and either burned from the bottom with the entirety of the tree sticking out into the room, or cut into sections and burned for 12 days.

Aspen is the wood of choice for spiritual understanding, while the mighty oak is symbolic of strength and wisdom. A family hoping for a year of prosperity might burn a log of pine, while a couple hoping to be blessed with fertility would drag a bough of birch to their hearth.

While both desserts feature a thin layer of cake and fluffy filling rolled into a log, the difference between a yule log and a Swiss roll is how the two are decorated. Swiss rolls are typically kept plain while yule logs are cut, frosted, and adorned to look like, well, logs!

She sprinkles it with a bit of powdered sugar and then covers it with a clean dish towel before rolling it. “If you roll it while it is still warm, it will get into that shape and it won't crack,” she says.

Traditional Yule foods include festive meats, winter vegetables, and colorful preserved fruits.

Santa's elves may be able to work all day and night to get Christmas ready, but that doesn't mean you need to do the same. The beauty of festive layer cakes, chocolate-coated yule logs, and yes, even the traditional fruit cake, is that they can all be made ahead and decorated or wrapped up whenever you're ready.

You want your cake to be light, airy, and moist so that it's flexible enough to roll easily. If you overbeat the batter or bake the cake too long, it could become dense, gummy, or dry — and thus more likely to crack.

What is a chocolate Yule log? ›

yule log in British English

noun. 1. a large log of wood traditionally used as the foundation of a fire in the hearth at Christmas. 2. a chocolate-coated cylindrical sponge cake, eaten at Christmas.

The cake emerged in the 19th century, probably in France, before spreading to other countries. It is traditionally made from a genoise, generally baked in a large, shallow Swiss roll pan, iced, rolled to form a cylinder, and iced again on the outside.

For a classic chocolate roulade, that's where the project would end. But for a Yule log, the cake is given a finishing coat of ganache, then a piece (or two) is cut off to make a "branch" (or two) that can be attached elsewhere, with more ganache to smooth over the seams.

One of the favourite sweet treats of Christmas was first created in remembrance of an ancient tradition. The Christmas Chocolate Yule Log we all know and love actually represents the historical practice of collecting and burning a very large log in the hearth, throughout the Christmas season.