Yule Log
Ingredients
chocolate sponge
4 large eggs
100g caster sugar
65g self-raising flour (how to make your own)
40g cocoa powder
chocolate ganache
300ml / ½ pint double cream (heavy cream)
300g dark chocolate (I used 60%) - broken into small pieces
cream filling
300ml / ½ pint double cream (heavy cream) - whipped
2-3 tbs caster sugar (to taste)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
150g raspberries
To decorate
powdered sugar (to dust)
raspberries
rosemary sprigs
Instructions
making the chocolate sponge
Preheat the oven to 400F.
Prepare a 13x9in Swiss roll tin, with baking spray & parchment paper.
Starting with the sponge, in a large bowl with an electric whisk, whip the eggs & sugar until pale, frothy & doubled in size. Sift the flour & cocoa powder into the bowl and carefully fold it in. You don’t want to knock any of the air out of the mixture, so use gentle figure 8 motions with your spatula until fully incorporated.
Pour the batter into the prepared tin and spread evenly.
Bake for about for 8–10 minutes, or until the sponge has risen, bouncy to the touch, and you can see the sides are pulling away from the tin.
Place clean dish towel on your counter and dust with powdered sugar. While the sponge is still hot, turn it out onto the dish towel and peel back the parchment paper.
Tightly roll the sponge up with the dish towel, and place it seam side down on a wire rack to cool completely (anywhere from 1 hour to 3 hours)
making the chocolate ganache
Place chopped chocolate in a heat-proof bowl and set aside.
In a small saucepan heat the cream until hot, but not boiling. Remove from heat and pour over the bowl of chopped chocolate. Don’t touch it for 2-4 minutes, the residual heat will melt the chocolate. After a few minutes, gently stir to combine & set aside to cool to room temperature.
making the raspberry whipped cream
In a chilled bowl, using an electronic mixer, whip together heavy cream, vanilla & sugar until soft peaks form. Finally, very gently beat in raspberries, you want some broken, but you don’t want to make the cream runny.
assembly
Unwrap the chilled Swiss roll and remove from the dish towel. Using an offset spatula, spread a generous dollop of cream across the sponge (leaving a 1/2 inch on all sides to account for the cream moving when it gets re-rolled) At this point you could add in whole raspberries, or just tightly re-roll the sponge as is. Us
Using an offset spatula, spread a thick layer of ganache evenly all over the Swiss roll. Once all sides are evenly coated, use a fork to gently trace ridges along the ganache, creating a tree bark texture.
Dust with icing sugar & garnish with raspberries & sprigs of mint (or rosemary)