White Christmas Bûche de Noël

Chestnut Cream Filled and frosted Genoise. Mushroom and holly berries were made out of fondant. The holly, rosemary and the redwood ferns were frosted with sugar. Recipe adapted from Francois Payard

White Christmas Buche de Noel

Ingredients

	For the sponge cake:		For the chestnut pastry cream:
5	Eggs	300g	Milk
260g	Sugar	1	Vanilla bean, split lengthwise and scraped
140g	Flour	165g	Sugar
	For the ginger syrup:	70g	Flour
250g	Sugar	2	Eggs
250g	Water	150g	Sweetened chestnut paste
2 tbs	Ginger, chopped	50g	Rum or whisky
		1L	Heavy cream
		10	Whole candied chestnuts
		40g	Cocoa powder

Procedure
For the sponge cake:

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C.

Whisk together the eggs and the sugar in a large bowl and cook, whisking constantly, over a pot 1/3 full of simmering water until the mixture thickens considerably and is warm to the touch. Transfer the sabayon into the bowl of an electric mixer and whisk on medium to high speed until the sabayon increases significantly in volume and is cool to the touch. Gently fold in the flour with a rubber spatula. Pour the cake mixture onto the sheet pan lined with parchment paper and quickly even out the batter using an offset or rubber spatula. Bake in the oven for 6-7 minutes, or until the cake is light golden brown, the edges pull away from the pan, and the cake is springy to the touch. Invert the cake onto a wire rack lined with parchment paper and cool.

For the ginger syrup:

Combine the sugar, water, and ginger in a small pot and bring to a boil. Stir to combine, and remove the pot from the heat. When cool, strain the syrup.

For the chestnut pastry cream:

Place the milk and vanilla bean into a pot and bring to a boil. In a small bowl, whisk together the sugar and flour. Add the eggs and whisk in the sugar mixture. Whisk until pale yellow. Pour half of the hot milk over the yolk mixture and whisk to combine. Return the entire mixture to the pot and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture thickens considerably and boils for several seconds. Remove the pot from the heat and

whisk in the chestnut paste and rum. Pour the pastry cream onto sheet pan lined with plastic wrap. Spread the cream out over the pan and cover with plastic wrap. (This will allow the pastry cream to cool rapidly without forming a skin.) Refrigerate immediately. When cool, remove the vanilla bean pod, and fold in the whipped cream.

To assemble the cake:

Place the cake, paper side down, on a flat work surface. Brush the cake with the ginger syrup and spread with 2/3 of the chestnut cream. Arrange chestnut pieces in a row on top of the cream, lengthwise down the center of the cake. Roll the cake tightly, unwrapping the paper at the same time. When the entire cake is rolled, rewrap the cake in the paper, twisting the ends tightly to secure. Place in the freezer for 1 hour to set.

Slice a small triangular piece from each end of the log and glue the two pieces together with chestnut cream to form a small branch. Attach the branch to the top of the log, again using the chestnut cream. Spread the entire log with the remaining chestnut cream. Using a fork or pastry comb, brush the log horizontally to make the cream look like tree bark. To decorate the ends of the log, dip your finger in the cocoa and make a fingerprint at each end of the

log. Dip a small round cutter or glass in the cocoa and stamp a cocoa circle around the cocoa fingerprint. This should give the impression of a cross section of a wooden log. Decorate the top of the log with meringue mushrooms and holiday ornaments. Serve slightly chilled.