Daring Bakers: French Yule Log

Pushing the limits of Tri2Cook's nickname for myself, "the chef who never sleeps," I joined one more group - The Daring Bakers. You may have seen their work spread throughout food blogs. DB was a no brainer since I like to learn by doing, and this gives me something challenging to do each month. And what a way to start!

This month's challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux.
They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand


For those of you who know my preference (dessert sadomasichism!), this was a perfect launch of a new relationship for me and DB. Here is what I had to prepare:

1) Dacquoise Biscuit
2) Mousse
3) Ganache Insert
4) Praline (Crisp) Insert
5) Creme Brulee Insert
6) Icing

No problem - I said. Done them all before, except the praline insert. And so I did:

This was the first time I had included a creme brulee inside of a pastry, and it worked very well. Once all of the components were set up inside of an encasing of mousse, they were thrown in the freezer to harden.

I was happy to make this log, since the more commonly known version with rolled cake and buttercream is just not my thing. This was also one of the desserts I served at the recent cater for a local doc.

Once it was frozen, I applied the poured glaze, did a bit of piping to the top and cut away!

As if often the case, I didn't get a chance to try this so I can only assume it was outstanding based on the response from the docs. I'll be sure to keep this in my repertoire.

Here are a couple of other variations I did for customers