- I’m an experienced baker and love trying new recipes, especially those from icons like Julia Child.
- Inspired by the Amazon show “Julia”, I made a buche de Noel for a working holiday party.
- Even though I am a good cook, I found the recipe boring and difficult, but the cake was delicious.
“It’s that time of year when you can impress your loved ones with elaborate baked goods and wonderful festive recipes that you hope will be popular enough to be requested again next year.”
At least that’s what the holidays mean to me. Your mileage may vary, but I’m always in the loop. ”great british bake off“And I’m looking for the next big thing.
Inspired by a recent episode of the Amazon show “Julia,” this year I pulled out my piping bag and tried my hand at my first buche de Noel, or Yule log cake. julia child recipe.
I have worked in various kitchens and bakeries over the years, so although I have a talent for cooking, I found classic French recipes difficult. My results weren’t as accurate as I expected, but as you’d expect from an icon like Julia, the taste was delicious and everyone who tried it seemed to like it.
Before joining Business Insider, I worked as a front desk manager at a bakery in one of my many service industry jobs. Although I wasn’t waking up at 5 a.m. with a full-time back-of-the-house baker to prepare the dough and frosting, one of my main responsibilities at a trendy cupcake restaurant was to make sure the inventory was It was to process a so-called “second bake” when it was running low. I needed to update my best selling products.
That summer, I baked cupcakes and bread pudding and filled them in piping bags. cake with frosting and decorations, and got into baking in general. My family all sat in the kitchen and I had previously worked in fast casual dining, so I was new to cooking at that point, but it was that year that pastries became part of my repertoire.
Since then, I’ve been regularly challenging my baking skills with breads, bars, pies, and cookies. I usually avoid the difficult laminated doughs used to make iconic treats like croissants, but I approach most cakes without any hesitation. However, I had never made a roulade, or roll cake, before.
As always, Julia gave me a run for my money. Her original television version is Buche de Noel recipe Orange flavored cake and chocolate frosting topped with spun sugar moss and meringue mushrooms.
Over the years, master French chefs have released several versions of the recipes used for the cakes and frostings in this festive holiday creation. I realized that I couldn’t find the exact version she used when she aired the original episode on Season 3 of “French Chef,” and followed Julia’s recipes in one of her subsequent books. , I used a slightly modified version from a cooking blog. “From Julia Child’s Kitchen.”
I decided to use meringue mushrooms, but omitted the sugar moss because the cake would be driving nearly two hours to attend a holiday party at work.
I’ve made multiple recipes from Julia’s winning recipe. ”Master the art of French cookingI’m always amazed at how the taste of the “” series changes with each step, and this cake was no exception.
First I took it out of the oven and carefully placed it on a cookie sheet, and my partner and I tasted some of the crumbled edges, but the taste was nothing special. The texture was also a bit unusual.
Grainy, I think he called it. (I remember him definitely saying that, just as I remember anything anyone said about my cooking that seemed even remotely negative.)
I was worried that maybe I had read something wrong or that the humidity in a seaside town had caused it to bake oddly, especially since my cake felt so thin, but again… I trusted Julia’s process and went ahead.
The larger, thinner cake was easier to roll into the iconic log shape. I was worried about the cracks that often occur in roll cakes, but the sponge was moist and I was able to adjust the shape without tearing the center.
I was also worried, chocolate frosting The dough I made was too loose (to be fair, it probably became that way because I accidentally picked up half-and-half instead of full-fat whipped cream at the store).
Due to the low fat content of the cream, the frosting didn’t whip up as fluffy or as quickly as usual, but with a little more cocoa powder and some time in the fridge, it got the right consistency. It was done. It was not sticky, spread well, and had a rich flavor.
Meringue was where I started losing it. It was 8:30pm and I had already been baking for over an hour and a half, perfecting a recipe with over 40 steps.
To make small mushrooms to decorate the log cake, I piped half-dollar-sized circles and rows of stems made to stand on their own. I hadn’t worked with a piping bag in a while, and I quickly became frustrated that my skills weren’t as sharp as they were in my bakery days.
When squeezing out the mushroom shapes, the sticky texture of the meringue was difficult to handle, and I was unsure if it would turn out well. But somehow, as is often the case, Julia’s guidance — No matter how much I doubted her — When I took the meringue out of the oven, it was fluffy and light and melted perfectly in my mouth.
By the time I finished baking the bread, I had spent two hours walking around the kitchen, messing up every little bowl in the house, both the electric mixer and the stand mixer, the piping bags and nozzles, the measuring cups and spoons, the sifter, and multiple things. I spent a lot of money. Baking sheet, mixing bowl, pot, double boiler, candy thermometer.
my sink is full of dishes; I spilled powdered sugar and cocoa on the counter and frost splattered on the stove. Still, he was left with the same warm sense of accomplishment he always experiences when he completes one of Julia’s recipes.
Before I started decorating, I cut off the edges of the rolls and shared the extra pieces with my partner. After I let the cake rest, applied frosting to the inside, and rolled it, the spongy texture disappeared. Instead, he said, the whole thing was “fun.”
It’s more than what I was looking for.
As happens with most of her recipes, Julia left me feeling defeated and triumphant. In the end, I was so proud that I was able to try something new, overcome challenges in the kitchen, and share something delicious in the process. The next day with my colleagues.
To prevent the sugar from melting, I saved the final garnish just before serving it at the office. I assembled the mushrooms with small blobs of frosting to act as glue, sprinkled with cocoa powder, and then scraped the outer layer of cake with a fork to mimic it. bark texture I sprinkled a little powdered sugar snow on top.
Unfortunately, the bûche de Noël, or Christmas log, is meant to look like a festive tree branch, so even with the boring little mushrooms there wasn’t much to look at.
However, my colleagues gave me great support.
Together, they spent several hours identifying the orange flavor in the sponge. And we all agreed that it turned out beautiful.
There are some things I would change if I were to make it again, but I’m going to try this extensive recipe again and I didn’t get a single crumb. Or there are mushroom caps left over for meringue.
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