Buche de Noel

This has become a family Christmas tradition as much as cornbread dressing and turkey.   It pays to have a mother who is a Francophile.

Ingredients: Cake Roll

8 ounces semisweet chocolate, broken into small pieces
1/3 cup espresso (brewed from instant espresso)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
7 egg yolks
1 cup sugar
8 egg whites
3 to 4 tablespoons unsweetened  cocoa (Dutch - process if possible)
2 cups heavy cream
1/4 cup Cognac or brandy

Directions:

1. In a double boiler, melt chocolate with espresso over hot not simmering water.  Stir occasionally. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Pour the chocolate mixture into a bowl and let cool until tepid.

2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly butter a 11 by 17 inch jelly roll pan (cookie sheet).  Line it with waxed paper, with a little of the paper overhanging at each end of the the pan and lightly butter the paper.

3. In a medium bowl, beat the egg yolks with 3/4 cup of the sugar until the mixture is pale yellow and fluffy and a ribbon forms when the beater is lifted.  Stir into the tepid chocolate mixture, blending thoroughly.

4. In another bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff but not dry.  Stir one-third of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture to lighten it, then gently fold in the remaining egg whites just until no white patches show.

5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, tilting the pan to spread evenly.  Smooth the top.  Bake 10 minutes, then lower the temperature to 300 degrees and bake for another 5 minutes.  Remove pan from the oven.  Cover  the cake with a damp cloth and refrigerate the cake in it pan for 1 hour.

6. Carefully remove the cloth from the cake and loosen the roll from the sides of the pan with a knife. Using a strainer, heavily dust the top of the cake with most of the cocoa (reserve a little for later patch-ups). Cover the cake with a sheet of wax paper.

7. Lay out a large kitchen towel on a flat work surface.  Grabbing both ends of the both sheets of wax paper, quickly but carefully flip the cake over onto the towel.  Carefully remove the sheet of wax paper from what is now the top of the cake.

8. In a medium bowel, beat the heavy cream until slightly thickened.  Add the remaining 1/4 cup sugar and Cognac and continue beating until cream is thick enough to spread.

9. With a thin flexible spatula, spread the whipped cream evenly over the cake, leaving a small border along all the sides.  Grasping both the kitchen towel and the waxed paper along one long side, gently roll the cake into a jelly roll shape, pulling the cloth and waxed paper away as you go.  On the last turn, roll the cake onto a serving platter,  seam-side down.  If the cake as sagged at all, gently push the roll back into shape with your hands.  Trim the ends of the roll so the cream filling is flush with the ends of the cake.  Reserve the end pieces to create branch(s) on log.  Cover lightly with plastic with plastic wrap or foil and refrigerate while preparing frosting.

Mocha Buttercream

Ingredients 

6 ounces semisweet chocolate, cut into small pieces
2 teaspoons instant espresso powder
2 sticks plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 egg yolks
2/3 cup confectioners' sugar

Directions:

1. In a heavy saucepan, combine the chocolate, 1/3 cup water and instant espresso.  Stir over low heat until the chocolate is completely melted.  Scrape into a bowl and cool completely.

2. Using an electric mixer, cream the butter until light and fluffy.  Beat in the egg yolks one at a time,  beating until each is incorporated before adding another.  Gradually add the confectioner's sugar.  Scrape in the cooled chocolate mixture and blend thoroughly.

3. Frost the cake with the buttercream.  Place one of the reserved ends on top and frost.  Using the back of a fork mark the buttercream to look like tree bark.  Sometimes I brush melted chocolate on cleaned holly leaves and let harden the freezer,  I then peel away the leaves and use the chocolate "leaves" as decoration with a couple of fresh cranberries.