Yule Love It

A little late but done none the less here it is.

And the Challenge this month is…

A French Yule Log!!!

In France you can buy two kinds of Yule log, either the Genoise and Buttercream type that that is rolled up (the one most of us are familiar with), or what is more commonly purchased which is a frozen Yule Log very reminiscent of an ice cream cake, only often it’s not made of ice cream but rather frozen mousse of some sort. In French this is called an entremets which is sometimes loosely translated in English as simply a cream dessert. This also means that this recipe is not holiday-specific, it is just a scrumptious dessert recipe. I had never heard of this other aparently more common yule log but then I've never actually eaten the rolly up kind either so there ya go.

This Yule log is made up of six components:
1) Dacquoise Biscuit
2) Mousse
3) Ganache Insert
4) Praline (Crisp) Insert
5) Creme Brulee Insert
6) Icing

In keeping with my recent focus I wanted to complete this challenge using only items in my pantry. I had to veganize the recipe anyway which required replacing a few eggs so I threw caution to the wind and dove in with whatever ideas struck me. There were definitely a few bumps in the road but this is what came of it.

Coconut Biscuit
Dark Chocolate Ganache
Cherry Almond Crisp
Coconut Mousse
Cherry Creme (which for some reason refused to freeze hence the droopiness of the layer)
White Chocolate Icing

Over all the flavor was good but it could use more tweeking to something really good and reliable. But I suppose that's what you get when you are throwing things together from your cupboards and fridge. Maybe next holiday I'll revisit this. Looking at other DB results you can see the possibilities are endless for flavor combinations as well as presentation. This battle is not over Sir Yule!

And now a closing word from our sponsor . . .
This month's challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux. They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand.