White chocolate and pistachio Bûche de Noël
I love everything about Buche de Noel. The tradition, the shape, the preparation and the tastes are so different these days as pastry chefs let their imaginations run wild when preparing their creations. Although every year, our Christmas dessert is my dark chocolate Buche, this is an option for white chocolate lovers.
150 g pure pistachio paste ( I use this one)
50 g roasted and chopped pistachios
white chocolate if you wish to make decorations from them
sponge:
6 medium eggs, room temperature
100 g light brown sugar
vanilla powder or seeds from 1/2 pod
pinch of sea salt
1/2 organic orange zest
100 g wheat flour
40 g of butter, melted and cooled
cream:
200 ml sweet cream
1/2 vanilla pod
pinch of sea salt
200 g white chocolate
1/2 finely grated organic orange zest
250 g mascarpone cheese
syrup:
70 ml water
60 g light brown sugar
2 tbsp orange liquor
pinch of sea salt
chocolate layer:
200 g white chocolate
Heat the oven to 190° C. Line a 30x40 cm pan (standard oven pan) with baking paper.
Whisk eggs with sugar, vanilla, salt, and orange zest until they have tripled in volume and the sugar has dissolved – with a mixer for about 7-9 minutes. Turn off the mixer, sift in the flour, add butter, and mix by folding rather than mixing. Pour into the pan and level. Bake for about 11-13 mins until just golden and a skewer inserted comes out clean. While the sponge is baking, prepare a tea towel by sifting it with icing sugar (the size of the sponge). When the sponge is ready, take it out and flip it upside down onto the towel. Slowly peel off the baking paper, leaving it on, and roll tightly. Let cool.
For the cream, pour milk into a pot, add vanilla and salt and heat until the milk starts to show steam. Take off and add chocolate, letting it sit one minute untouched. Then mix until smooth. Transfer to another bowl and cool completely.
While the cream is cooling, put the water intended for the syrup, sugar, and salt in a pot and melt on low heat. Turn up the heat and cook for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat, add cognac, and let cool.
When white chocolate is cool (room temperature, but not warm), place mascarpone into a bowl. Whisk for 30 seconds to loosen it up. Then, continuing to whisk, add white chocolate and whisk until the cream is spreadable. It takes 1-2 minutes, depending on the chocolate and mascarpone. The moment you see that the cream is smooth and spreadable and keeps its shape, stop whisking. Otherwise, it might curdle.
Make the cake. Roll out the sponge, remove the paper, and put it on the work surface. Drizzle everything with syrup, and spread the pistachio paste either in a middle par or on 2/3. There is no need to spread it on the whole sponge.
Spread with most of the cream (leaving 1/4 th for the top layer), and roll it up. Roll into a plastic wrap and leave to rest in the fridge for at least 12 hours before finishing.
Some hours before serving (I like to do it in the morning if the meal is dinner), cut off 1 cm slices from both ends. Then, one larger part is cut diagonally and placing the cut end against the log, spreading cream at the joints to make the shape of a log.
Spread with the rest of the cream and decorate with chocolate or roasted pistachios. As you wish. And place in the fridge for more hours. Take out of the fridge 20-30 minutes before serving.