Yule Log, Hazelnut and Chocolate Entremet

Alrighty all, a very heavily involved bake for this weeks recipe. A delicious yule log entremet, consisting of a hazelnut praline chocolate feuilletine crunch, a vegan hazelnut chocolate sponge, a rich dark chocolate pastry cream and a hazelnut praline mousse. This is all topped with a milk chocolate mirror glaze and some tempered dark chocolate decorations and some Christmas tree decoations too! Feel free to try out parts of the recipe or take some of the recipes for your own needs. But I would love to see any entremets made by anyone that takes inspiration from the one I made!

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Step 1

For the vegan hazelnut sponge: preheat oven to 175 °C, and line and oil and line a 10” square cake tin

Step 2

In a bowl combine soya milk and vinegar and mix together, then leave mixture to sit for 10-15 minutes till it thickens up. Add dry ingredients into one bowl (flour, sugars, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt) and whisk together

Step 3

Add the oil, coffee, and soya mixture to the dry ingredients and mix till the batter is formed. Then fold in the hazelnuts till homogenous.

Step 4

Pour the batter into the tin and smooth out. Place into the oven and bake for 20-30 minutes till the batter comes clean from a skewer.

Step 5

Take out cakes and leave them to cool before cutting into rectangles for use later

Step 6

For the crunch layer; combine melted chocolate with praline paste and then mix in the feuilletine till homogenous

Step 7

Layer on one side of the sponge and then cover with clingfilm and freeze till needed

Step 8

For the Pastry Cream; In a large bowl whisk together the egg yolks, sugar and cornflour until light, pale and fluffy

Step 9

In a saucepan add the whole milk and heat on a low-medium heat until hot and barely simmering. Once milk is hot, add it to the egg yolk mixture a ¼ at a time and whisk vigorously to combine

Step 10

Once all the milk is combined with the egg yolk mixture pour it back into the saucepan and place on the heat, whisking constantly until the mixture thickens and reaches a boil. Once the mixture reaches a boil and becomes really thick, cook for another 15-30 seconds and then take off the heat and pour mixture through a sieve to remove any lumps.

Step 11

Finally add the butter and dark chocolate to the mixture and whisk together until combined. Cover the bowl with Clingfilm, making sure it touches the pastry cream to avoid forming a skin and allow it to slowly cool to room temp.

Step 12

Before using lightly whisk the pastry cream to loosen it. Then pipe a stripe of custard of the sponge rectangle, wrap in clingfilm and leave in the freezer till needed for later

Step 13

For the mousse start by making the bombe mix by; placing egg yolks, egg water and sugar ingredients into a glass bowl and lightly whisk them together till combined. Bring a small amount of water to the simmer/slight boil

Step 14

Place mixture over simmering water and whisk constantly till mixture reaches 62-65 °C. The mixture will feel hot to touch be lighter in colour and should have gained some volume.

Step 15

Remove bowl from heat. Then keep whisking the mixture until the residual heat from the bowl goes away and it becomes lukewarm to touch. The mixture should be thick and leave a trail and have gained volume. Then weight out 240 g of this bombe mix and leave to the side.

Step 16

Continue making the mousse by; blooming the gelatine in water and allow it to set for 10 minutes. Heat liquid cream and melt the bloomed gelatine in it till homogenous. Mix into the nut butter/praline till homogenous and then allow the mixture to cool to 10 °C before continuing.

Step 17

Fold the pate a bombe mix into the butter/praline mixture. Then fold in the whipped cream 1/3 at a time till all combined and homogeneous. Place into piping bag and then begin to assemble to entremets.

Step 18

Assemble the entremet; by piping the mousse into the mould and then adding the custard/sponge insert into the mould. Continue filling up the mould and then end with the crunch/sponge insert. Cover with clingfilm and then freeze the mould before glazing.

Step 19

Freeze entremet beforehand, removing from the mould once glaze is made and at temperature.

Step 20

For the mirror glaze; Mix the water, sugar, and condensed milk in a pan and bring it to a gentle simmer. Once it reaches a simmer take it off the heat and add in the bloomed gelatine until mixed

Step 21

Pour this heated mixture into the chopped chocolate and let the mixture sit for a few minutes before immersion blending the mixture to combine the melted chocolate

Step 22

Then sieve this mixture into a jug and allow to cool. Let the glaze cool to around 33 degree Celsius, once at this temp it will be ready to pour onto the entremet

Step 23

Once the yule log is glazed cover with some tempered chocolate decorations or however desired and its ready to serve. Enjoy!