From Daryl aka Avery
It's Christmas week and I've got a present to give away. See below! Keep reading.
There are times in our lives when we have to do the difficult. See people we don't want to see. Go places we don't want to go.
And make really arduous desserts that take lots of steps.
But they're worth it.
For years, we've had a tradition to enjoy a yule log for dessert on Christmas night. I bought it at a store called Gelson's. Their bakery makes the most exquisite, decadent yule log. How could I resist buying it? But then I moved away from Los Angeles, and there were no yule logs to be found in my new states, and I had to start to eat gluten-free, so I let the tradition slide. I made glulten-free cookies. I served a variety of pies and cheesecakes and even flourless chocolate cake.
Flash forward to the present. I'm back living in Los Angeles again, and last year, my son wanted a yule log. How could I say no? Except this time, I decided I was going to make it so I could eat it. I found a recipe on Pamela's website (gluten-free supplies) and thought, hmmm, I can do this. How hard can it be?
Well, it's not easy, but it was so worth it!
If you lose a tradition because it just requires too many steps, but then you pick it up again, I hope you reap the same kind of results I did. It was worth it.
YULE LOG
Gluten-free
Tweaked from Pamela’s
Gluten-free Website
(serves 8-12)
Ingredients:
Chocolate Jellyroll
3.5 ounces dark semi-sweet chocolate, melted, cooled to
lukewarm
4 egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
(*up to 1/2 cup boiling water)
1 teaspoon vanilla or vanillin
3/4 cup Pamela’s gluten-free Bread mix
3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 egg whites
3 tablespoons powdered sugar
Whipped Cream Filling
1 pint heavy whipping cream
3 teaspoons sugar
Chocolate Butter
Cream Frosting
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup cocoa powder
4 cups powdered sugar
1 ounce espresso
4 tablespoons cream
dash salt
Directions:
Chocolate Jelly Roll
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Make sure rack is in the middle
of the oven. Grease and line a jellyroll pan with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, beat yolks, add sugar and vanilla to mix.
Add cooled chocolate.
In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and
salt. Add to egg and chocolate mixture and stir. Add up to 1/2 cup boiling
water to make a stiff batter.
In another bowl, whip egg whites to stiff peaks. Add a large
spoonful of the whipped whites to the batter to lighten before lightly folding
in the remaining egg whites.
Spread the batter on the parchment paper in the jellyroll
pan, making sure you get the batter all the way to the corners.
Bake 13-15 minutes.
Remove cake from the oven and loosen the corners right way
with a spatula. Let the cake rest for about 10 minutes. Sprinkle with 3
tablespoons powdered sugar. Place a clean (thin) kitchen towel over the cake
and carefully flip out of the pan onto the towel on the counter. Carefully
remove the parchment paper. Starting
with a short end, roll the cake AND towel together. Wrap and chill for about 1
hour.
Whipped Cream Filling
Whip cream in a deep bowl. As the cream starts to hold its
shape in soft peaks, add the sugar, 1 teaspoon at a time. Beat until thick. Stop
before it becomes BUTTER! About 3-4
minutes.
Unroll the cake on a clean surface. Spread the cream to the
edges leaving 1-inch of space on the outer end where the cake will come
together. Roll the cake back up, without
the towel this time. Just cake and cream. J Where the cake joins together, place this
seam down on your serving platter. Chill again, for 1 hour, before frosting.
Chocolate Butter Cream
Frosting
Melt butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Add cocoa
and salt, and stir until smooth. Add cream, stir, and then add powdered sugar 1
cup at a time. Stir until smooth each time. When the frosting gets too hard to
stir, add the espresso a little at a time until you get a good consistency.
Cool!
When frosting the log, make rough edges and stripes to give
the look of natural bark. This took me a few tries. Because it’s a thick
frosting, I sort of sawed back and forth through the frosting. It’s fun!
Note: I did not make
meringue mushrooms, but there is a recipe for those on the Pamela’s site if
you’re more industrious! This cake was phenomenal!
Giveaway!
Because the 7th in the Cheese Shop Mysteries, FOR CHEDDAR OR WORSE, is coming out in
6 weeks, I'm in a cheese-giving mood.
So today, I'm giving away your choice of an autographed copy of
Cheese Shop Mystery 4, 5 or 6:
To Brie or Not To Brie, Days of Wine and Roquefort, OR As Gouda as Dead </