Buche de Noel - Yule Log

Anyone recommend a good bakery?????

Thanks,
Wally Wade

I would go to the best French patisserie in town Vanille, they produce 2 types of bûches de Noel.

Vanille Patisserie
2229 N. Clybourn Ave - Chicago, IL 60614 - (773) 868-4574

A couple of years ago, or perhaps last christmas, I bought a frozen one made in France from Trader Joe's that was absolutely delicious, and very low priced.

alain40 wrote:I would go to the best French patisserie in town Vanille, they produce 2 types of bûches de Noel.

Vanille Patisserie
2229 N. Clybourn Ave - Chicago, IL 60614 - (773) 868-4574

I realize a Bûche de Noël is probably something you want to order in advance/reserve, but at the end of the day yesterday, Vanille at the French Market still had one in its case:



Also, not a bakery, but Bûche de Noël is on Balsan's Christmas Eve and Christmas Day menus, described as "spice cake, quince, eggnog ice cream." I've had a few killer desserts at Balsan recently; I bet their Christmas cake would be excellent.

Balsan (in the Elysian Hotel)
11 East Walton Street
Chicago, IL 60611
312-646-1400

A buche isn't that hard to make, and I think making one is fun. There are recipes in many cookboks and food web sites.

Here's a thread discussing this very question. All of the recommendations are solid except the last one. Sadly, Gladstone Park Bakery has closed since this thread was alive. One new entry into the Buche de Noel sweepstakes that wasn't open back in 2005 (or at least wasn't known to me) is Schlegl's Bakery on Touhy, though Swedish Bakery would be my first choice followed closely by Vanille.

Schlegl's Bakery
3915 Touhy Avenue
Lincolnwood, Illinois 60712
847-568-1750

Swedish Bakery
5348 N Clark
Chicago, IL 60640
773-561-8919

Vanille Patisserie
2229 N Clybourn Ave
Chicago, Illinois 60614
773-868-4574

A buche isn't that hard to make, and I think making one is fun. There are recipes in many cookboks and food web sites.

Yup. Pretty much a frosted jellyroll. They only get complicated if you get into more elaborate decorations (meringue mushrooms, etc). But it's not hard to make one as simple looking as that Vanille one. I wouldn't want to guess what they charge for it.

rickster wrote:

A buche isn't that hard to make...

Yup. Pretty much a frosted jellyroll.

So...if it's so easy, why not whip one up
and sell it to the OP? Just because it
CAN be done, doesn't mean it will be
done WELL. Pretty much the response
to about any post on this entire site
could be: "Why didn't you just
make that yourself?"

rickster wrote:

A buche isn't that hard to make, and I think making one is fun. There are recipes in many cookboks and food web sites.

Yup. Pretty much a frosted jellyroll. They only get complicated if you get into more elaborate decorations (meringue mushrooms, etc). But it's not hard to make one as simple looking as that Vanille one. I wouldn't want to guess what they charge for it.

Perhaps it's because I'm both purist and (half) French, but I couldn't disagree more. Making a Buche de Noel sounds easy in theory, but in reality is one of those things that is easy to do quite poorly (and often is done quite poorly.) I've honestly only had a few here in the States that truly lived up to what a true Buche should taste and look like. Jelly roll type cakes are often too dense for a Buche, which is supposed to be made out of genoise (which is much lighter and airier) and then covered with a buttercream icing. They are often filled with a mousse and perhaps a fruit puree as well.

Frankly, I would much prefer to pay a premium price to get one from a good French patisserie like Vanille than to take my chances with somebody who is simply slapping meringue mushrooms onto an overiced, flavorless American jellyroll cake and calling it a Buche de Noel. (Yes, I realize I'm probably sounding like a snob right now. JMHO)

Jelly roll type cakes are often too dense for a Buche, which is supposed to be made out of genoise (which is much lighter and airier) and then covered with a buttercream icing. They are often filled with a mousse and perhaps a fruit puree as well.

I will admit I oversimplified for a more general audience. The homemade ones I used to make consisted of a genoise rolled around a hazelnut praline buttercream filling with chocolate ganache frosting on the outside, with meringue mushrooms and marzipan holly leaves and pinecones for decoration. OK, maybe that's not so simple. I began to make my own after having bought one too many overpriced crap ones at supposedly authentic French patisseries when I lived in the Northeast .

I'm with you, though - many, many jellyroll recipes are for genoise and they just aren't that hard to do. We always used to make our own (none available where I grew up) and our tradition was to fill it with dulce de leche. While I recognize fully that the OP may not have the time or inclination, which is fine - it's one of those things that I'd do on my own. Meringue mushrooms aren't difficult, either - and can be made ahead of time and stored until they are needed.

It's sometimes useful to read that a commonly purchased item is easily homemade - there are many things, particularly in baking, that seem complicated but in reality aren't that difficult for an amateur baker to do. I don't mind paying a baker to do things that take many steps and tools to make, but if it's do-able in my kitchen, I'd like to try. Martha Stewart has a recipe that I haven't tried but looks right to me.

I made this one last week and prep, baking time (not including making the mushrooms, which I made a couple days before), decorating took me under 2 hours. The recipe was from the TARTINE cookbook.


I just got orders for two more for friends and co-workers.

This looks divine.

LTH,

My pastry chef recently did Buche de Noel for a club event for several hundred members. Since then, we've repeated it several times and members are requesting them to go. It's a joy to watch an old school craftsman work.

Here's a bûche de Noël from Balsan on Christmas--too heavy/dense and served too cold but, presented with a beautiful mound of spice cake with eggnog ice cream and the most amazing, explosive, sweet cranberries I've ever had, it was OK.

Dane wrote:A buche isn't that hard to make, and I think making one is fun. There are recipes in many cookboks and food web sites.

When I was in middle school, a friend and I made a version of a Buche de Noel for French Class. It wasn't perfect, but it was delicious. Instead of a traditional Buche de Noel, this one had ice cream as the filling. If you have the time and the patience, I'm sure you could find delicious recipes out there. Maybe next year?

-Samantha
http://BunchBite.com

My sister make a pretty traditional one (gluten free to boot)

xmass_0995.jpg by Mel Hill Photography, on Flickr

Am I the only one who gets Buche de Noel and Croquenbouche mixed up all the time?

(Though, I never confuse Amuse-bouche.)

At some point during my childhood, I became enamored with the idea of a buche de noel. But I had never even tasted one. This year, I finally got off my ass and made one. I love a good challenge, and this was new to me. I had never even made a rolled cake.

I essentially used this Jacques Torres recipe. I was bothered by the lack of salt in the cake portion of the recipe, so I added about 1/2 teaspoon (maybe incorrectly, but other recipes I've seen incorporated salt, and I've never made a cake without salt). It called for a grand marnier simple syrup, debated hazelnut, but then figured grand marnier, combined with chocolate pastry cream and coffee buttercream, would provide a more interesting and better contrast in flavors.

Having never even made a rolled cake/roulade, the instructions seemed a bit odd to me. In particular, Jacques calls for sifting powdered sugar over the cake batter once on the baking sheet. Only after removing from the oven did I realize that the powdered sugar remained on the surface during the very short baking time (recipe said about 5 minutes; I might have gone 6.5), and provided a dry surface that made for easy rolling of the cake. Anyway, the cake was a yellow genoise, a little grand marnier simple syrup, chocolate pastry cream, and a coffee buttercream. For the buttercream, the recipe suggested a few drops of coffee extract, but I used a lot more than that (purchased some time back at Fox & Obel), tasting as I went along, until it reached the coffee flavor I desired. I drink water in between tastes so as to not cloud my taste.

Ultimately, I was pretty happy with the buche de noel. There were flaws for sure, maybe more noticeable to me, but ultimately I was very happy with the result. And I highly recommend this recipe if you choose to make your own. But before you decide whether to make your own or buy one, know that it is quite an endeavor and a several-hour effort.


Here are the various components, the genoise, coffee buttercream and chocolate pastry cream:





Here's the genoise, already drizzled with the grand marnier simple syrup, then rolled with the chocolate pastry cream:





You cut off the ends of the cake as part of the "log" shaping process. Here are the cut ends:





Yeah, plating could certainly have been a little better, but honestly, I had grown a bit tired, particularly after gluing the meringue mushroom stems and caps with coffee buttercream. But, here it is:



So perhaps a little flawed, but I was very pleased with the flavor and ultimately happy with the results. I suspect I'll be making a different buche de noel next year, and maybe I'll even spend a little more time making it look beautiful.

Great work, BR! Thanks for sharing.

I'm curious about what your Bûche de Noël is resting on. Those chocolate candies look a lot like a punsch/arrak-flavored candy popular over here in Sweden.

BR,

This is a lovely inspiration!

I didn't read the recipe, though I want to glean from your experience. When I have read rolled cake recipes in the past, I recall you rolled it fairly quickly after it left the oven. You later unroll it to fill with icing, then roll back up again. Was it that easy? I have always had visions in my mind of the cake breaking apart when uncoiled and coiled again.

Cute mushrooms, too!

Regards,

I had the good fortune of tasting BR's Buche de Noel and I have to say it was excellent, if a little coffee forward for my taste (I'm not a big coffee drinker to begin with, so take that with a grain of salt). The amount of effort it took to put this together really paid off in the end. Nice work, BR.

Bridgestone wrote:I'm curious about what your Bûche de Noël is resting on. Those chocolate candies look a lot like a punsch/arrak-flavored candy popular over here in Sweden.

BR's BdN is resting on mini nonpareils.

I also had the pleasure of enjoying BR's delicious holiday creation, if he would not have mentioned I would have never guessed it was a first effort. Loved the BdN, in particular the meringue mushrooms, then again I'm a sucker for meringue.

BR wrote:So perhaps a little flawed, but I was very pleased with the flavor and ultimately happy with the results. I suspect I'll be making a different buche de noel next year, and maybe I'll even spend a little more time making it look beautiful.

That was not flawed! I believe it was the best BdN I've eaten, and I happen to love coffee buttercream so I was in heaven. The meringue mushrooms were also just crisp enough with and airy inside. I'm always available as a tester for any future BdN.

Chiming in to agree--I actually haven't ever had a Buche de Noel that I've enjoyed--usually dry, overly sweet and cloying. I'm not even a merengue fan. But this was fantastic--right down to the snowcaps garnishing the plate. I loved the coffee forward, orange tinted flavor of the cake and the 'shrooms were terrific. Congrats!!

Thank you all for the very kind compliments, and for those lucky enough to have a piece, great to hear you enjoyed.

Bridgestone wrote:Great work, BR! Thanks for sharing.

I'm curious about what your Bûche de Noël is resting on. Those chocolate candies look a lot like a punsch/arrak-flavored candy popular over here in Sweden.

Bridgestone, G Wiv is correct, Nestle Sno-Caps to be precise. I didn't have time for more elaborate decorations, and finding them staring at me at the store when picking up a makeshift platter, I figured they'd do in a pinch.

Cathy2 wrote:BR,

This is a lovely inspiration!

I didn't read the recipe, though I want to glean from your experience. When I have read rolled cake recipes in the past, I recall you rolled it fairly quickly after it left the oven. You later unroll it to fill with icing, then roll back up again. Was it that easy? I have always had visions in my mind of the cake breaking apart when uncoiled and coiled again.

Cute mushrooms, too!

Regards,

Cathy, the recipe called for the cake to be cooled before rolling, and that's what I did. I'm not sure what an initial roll then unroll would do. And of course, this was necessary so that the buttercream wouldn't become a melted mess. Having never rolled a cake before, I feared breaking and such, but because the cake is minimally (yet fully) baked, it was amazingly easy to roll and there was no cracking whatsoever. If anything, I'm guilty of perhaps not rolling tightly enough throughout.

stevez wrote:I had the good fortune of tasting BR's Buche de Noel and I have to say it was excellent, if a little coffee forward for my taste (I'm not a big coffee drinker to begin with, so take that with a grain of salt). The amount of effort it took to put this together really paid off in the end. Nice work, BR.

Hey, just be happy there was "cream and sugar," so to speak.


And when I say flawed, I just wish I had done a little more with the buttercream in terms of decoration. And I wish I had spent a little more time shaping the mushrooms (more curved stems, patches of mushrooms, etc.), but meringue is actually very easy to make so never let that intimidate you. But I was very happy with the flavors. My only thought was that the fillings and buttercream were just a tad on the sweet side for me, easily correctable by removing just a little of the sugar next go-round.

This is the buche I made last year. (Vanilla sponge, espresso buttercream, covered in chocolate ganache mixed with sliced almonds to give it the "bark" look; meringue mushrooms with some silver dragees (for "frozen dew") and crushed pistachios (for the "moss"). This year, I think I'm going to do a cocoa sponge with a pistachio mousse filling.

La Fournette Bakery, 1547 Wells Street, which is a marvelous place, carries these. They don't appear on their website but they have a beautiful model in the shop.
312 624 9430

Lovely!!! I enjoyed seeing the pictures. I have made a real buche de Noel years ago with the genoise cake and from scratch buttercream. I did not have the meringue mushrooms. It was very good. It did take some kind to make. Some people are not inclined to make something like this themselves and many of us are so frazzled by Xmas we need help and can not make something even if it takes a couple hours time. Its nice to know one could be purchased.

I had an excellent Buche de Noel made by Bittersweet Bakery. They have two sizes and, when I went in, had two flavors (chocolate and egg nog). We bought the egg nog. I generally don't like cake and really don't like frosting, but I really enjoyed the Buche de Noel. The interior was moist and not overly sweet.

Bittersweet Pastry Shop & Cafe
1114 West Belmont Avenue
Chicago, IL 60657
Phone:(773) 929-1100

I use a chocolate roulade as my buche, which was a recipe from an older cookbook and series called Great Chefs of the West. It's foolproof and moist. I added my own frosting to make the "bark." I used green sprinkles for the moss, although I usually take chopped pecans and add green food coloring. The snow underneath the log was white cotton candy.