Recipe: “Totally hazelnuts” Christmas yule log with praline mousseline cream

And here comes again that time of the year!

The time of crazy shopping, snow, colourful lights and decorations all around, without forgetting Mariah Carey’s song looping in the background.

But it’s also the time of delicious Christmas cakes and cookies to share with the ones you love and the only time when you can indulge in rich desserts without any worries… because as the old saying goes: “Christmas calories don’t count“! 🙂

One of the most popular Christmas desserts in the world is the yule log, a long rolled cake usually filled with cream or jam: this year I was seduced by the recipe of World Champion Christophe Michalak.

Here is my “Totally hazelnuts” Christmas yule log with praline mousseline cream!

No need to say this recipe is excellent! It has an insanely soft genoise that doesn’t even need to be moistened with syrup; a light praline mousseline cream (yep, the same type you can find in a Paris-Brest) and loooads of caramelised hazelnuts!

The recipe calls for almost half a kilo of hazelnuts! It’s a very rich and generous cake, but, hey, it’s Christmas!!! 🙂

I really enjoyed making this yule log because I discovered a nice technique to roll a cake using an oven grill; moreover, covering it completely with hazelnuts is simple and fun (it might take some time though!).

What do you think about this yule log? Better than last year’s one?

Yule log with caramelised hazelnuts

Print recipe

Ingredients

Rolled spongecake

180g	Eggs (~4)
60g	Granulated sugar
50g	Pastry flour
1/2 teaspoon	Baking powder
20g	Hazelnut oil
20g	Acacia honey

Praline mousseline cream

250g	Whole milk
1	Vanilla bean
25g	Granulated sugar (for the milk)
1 pinch	Fleur de sel (or regular salt)
60g	Egg yolks (~3)
25g	Granulated sugar (for the yolks)
20g	Cornstarch
200g	Praline paste (made with hazelnuts only)
150g	Unsalted butter (room temperature)

Caramelised hazelnuts

150g	Granulated sugar
50g	Water
300g	Hazelnuts
15g	Salted butter

Decoration

Powdered sugar

Directions

Rolled genoise

Place the eggs and sugar on a bain marie on medium heat and whisk continuously until the mixture reaches 60°C

Transfer the mixture into the bowl of a mixer and whip at high speed until it reaches 35°C and is very light and foamy

Heat the honey and oil until they reach 40°C

Sift in the flour and the baking powder together, then mix quickly but gently with a baloon whisk; finally incorporate the honey and oil too. Always make sure not to deflate the batter too much.

Line a pan with aluminium foil and prepare a buttered bottomless mould on top of it

Pour the batter in the mould and bake for 20 minutes at 180°C

Let the genoise cool down on a wire-rack at room temperature

When the genoise has cooled down, remove the brown "skin": it should come away very easily by hand, but for hard spots you can also use a knife. Invert the genoise on parchment paper and remove the aluminium foil (this will remove the skin on the other side too). Finally flip the genoise again on parchment paper.

Pastry cream

Heat the milk with half of the sugar and the vanilla bean in a saucepan

In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar and corn starch

When the milk is boiling, pour it in three times over the egg mixture through a strainer and mix continuously to prevent the yolks from curdling

Put back the liquid mixture into the saucepan and cook on medium heat whisking continuously

Allow the pastry cream to boil for 2 minutes then remove from the heat and pour in a large container

Cover the pastry cream with plastic wrap and store in the fridge

Caramelised hazelnuts

Place the hazelnuts on a parchment-lined pan and toast in the oven for 15 minutes at 150°C

Rub the hazelnuts with a clean cloth to remove the skin (I did this twice, once when the hazelnuts came out of the oven and once when they had cooled down)

When the hazelnuts have cooled down, hold a large knife flat on top of a few of them and push with your other hand to coarsely chop them (Suggestion: keep the knife slightly facing yourself, it should not be parallel to the cutting board). Repeat this procedure for all the hazelnuts.

Heat the water and sugar in a saucepan on medium heat and bring to a boil

When the syrup reaches 115°C, add the toasted hazelnuts stirring continuously

Make sure the hazelnuts are perfectly coated with sugar syrup. The sugar will crystallise at a certain point: it's normal, so don't despair and keep stirring

When the sugar becomes caramel, make sure all the hazelnuts are well coated and that they do not stick to the bottom of the saucepan

Place the caramelised hazelnuts on a single layer on a silicon mat (or parchment paper) as scattered as possible; let cool down at room temperature then manually break the hazelnuts into small pieces

Praline mousseline cream

Place the room-temperature pastry cream with the praline paste in the bowl of a mixer and start whipping at high speed

When the praline paste is well incorporated, add the room-temperature diced butter, one piece at a time. If lumps form in the cream, just keep whipping until the cream is smooth and airy.

Assembling the yule log

Trim the borders of the spongecake with a serrated knife so to have a perfect rectangle of 25x20 cm

Pipe thick mousseline cream stripes on the genoise

Distribute evenly some caramelised hazelnuts on the cream (keep the majority of them for the final decoration)

With the help of the excess parchment paper, roll the genoise so that the two long ends meet (this means: you don't have to touch the log with your hands). Finally place an oven grill (or a cutting board ) as shown in the picture, in order to form a parchment paper cylinder, resulting in a nicely-round yule log. Refrigerate the yule log and the excess mousseline cream overnight.

The day after, remove the yule log from the fridge and adjust its shape with your hands if needed. Bring the praline mousseline cream to room temperature and whip for a couple of minutes; then spread it on a thin layer all around the yule log (you can use a spatula or, for a perfectly smooth look, your hand with single-use plastic gloves)

Cover all the surface of the yule log with the caramelised hazelnuts

Dust with powdered sugar and then transfer the yule log into a serving platter with a long spatula

Note

It is very important to remove the "skin" of the genoise before piping the cream, otherwise the skin will stick to the cream separating itself from the genoise, resulting in an undesirable look and texture.

Recipe: “Totally hazelnuts” Christmas yule log with praline mousseline cream

Yule log with caramelised hazelnuts