Buche de Noel

I'm looking for a relatively easy recipe for a Buche de Noel. I'm a little put off by the elaborate cake and filling/frosting recipes I've been seeing. Help, please!

Here's an improved version of Julia Child's recipe: https://njbrown.wordpress.com/2011/12/05/julias-buche-de-noel-recipe-with-improved-directions/

I've made this several times from her tome, The Way To Cook, but it's a pain to use the cook book - one has to flip backwards and forwards many times for various parts of the recipe. (I skip the spun sugar part) Still, this was better than a simplified recipe I tried from, maybe Cooks illustrated? maybe the NYTimes? that yielded a cake that broke when you tried to roll it, and icing not nearly as delicious.

It's really not hard, but does take a while. Best to make the cake and assemble, then just add the meringue mushrooms, then sprinkle with powdered sugar (and powdered cocoa for the mushrooms) right before serving. Good luck!

Thank you!

If I attempted one it would be a Pinterest fail for sure.

Thank you for the opportunity to revisit a holiday favorite: Julia vs. Martha Crockenbush Throwdown.

Some great info.. http://www.seriouseats.com/2008/12/jacques-torres-on-the-buche-de-noel.html

I agree with the advice of Mr. Torres. If you over bake or allow the pan to cool in any way before rolling, it will break the cake. As the song goes, drop it like it's hot.

Here are three recipes I had in my kitchen diary from the 80's. They come from two classmates I had at the time, sisters who baked the best Buche De Noel I've had to date. Which recipe they used is anyone's best guess but it was one of these three recipes they shared.

The yule log recipe on the third page is the cheater version.

spontaneous said:

If I attempted one it would be a Pinterest fail for sure.

I have the t-shirt for Pinterest fails. The worst were peanut butter cookies that proceeded to turn to one giant square of liquid and leak all over the oven.

Thank you everyone. I'm definitely attempting one in some form. I'll report back.

I'm not this adventurous. Any suggestions on where I can buy a decent buche de Noel?

If you don't mind it looking a bit less Martha and a bit more cartoonish, there was an adorable version at Natale's in Summit this weekend, merengue mushrooms and all. (But beware: they are not open on Mondays, and the window for placing holiday special orders has closed. So you would have to go and take a chance, and while I imagine they are making them all week, Natale's is a bit wild leading into holidays.)

The key is definitely rolling it right out of the oven.