Ultimate Yule Log

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ -Today on "America's Test Kitchen," Bridget and Julia make the ultimate caramel-espresso Yule log, and Lisa reviews mini muffin tins.

It's all coming up right here on "America's Test Kitchen."

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♪ -Celebrating Christmas with a bûche de Noel, or Yule log cake, is a tradition that dates back to the late 1800s, when a clever pastry chef in Paris first came up with the idea.

Now, over the years, this beautiful cake has gotten quite the reputation because it is notoriously hard to make.

But today, Bridget's gonna break it down into the various components and make it foolproof.

-Now, it can be tricky, as you said, but we're gonna break it down into components.

And most of these can be made ahead and should be made ahead, in my opinion.

-Gotcha.

-So, our cream, our filling is going to be caramel and espresso.

-Ooh, lovely.

-Yeah, exactly.

Alright.

So, we're gonna start on the espresso part.

Here, I have 1 cup of heavy cream, 1 tablespoon of instant espresso powder.

Just whisking this to incorporate it.

I've got the heat cranked up.

We want to bring this up to a simmer.

Alright, so I'm seeing some bubbling in there.

-Mm-hmm.

-Alright.

Give it a little swirl here.

We're just basically raising the temperature here because we're gonna add it to caramel in a minute, and you want the temperatures to be closer in temperature.

So, gonna switch off the heat and put a lid on it, Julia.

-[ Laughs ] -I've always wanted to say that.

We're just gonna keep that nice and warm.

On to caramel.

Now, I have 3/4 cup or 5 1/4 ounces of granulated sugar.

And when you're making caramel, sometimes they'll just call for plain sugar.

But we've got a couple ingredients to make it a lot easier.

One is water.

Water's gonna help to dissolve the sugar and make it melt much more evenly.

-Mm-hmm.

-This is 1/4 cup of water.

And a little bit of corn syrup.

-Oh!

-This light corn syrup.

This is just a tablespoon, and it's an inert sugar.

It's a liquid sugar.

It's gonna really help to prevent that re-crystallization.

-Mm-hmm.

-So, I'm gonna turn this to medium-high, and we're gonna bring this up to a boil.

Alright.

We're up to a boil here.

And we're gonna leave this alone for another six to eight minutes.

We want this to get nice and straw-colored.

And at this point, I do not want to stir it, because that also will risk crystallization.

Alright, Julia.

So it's a beautiful straw color.

-Mm-hmm.

-Now we want to slow things down.

We don't want this to get away from us.

We want it to reach a nice, dark, coppery brown color.

That's gonna take anywhere between four to seven minutes.

And at this point, I do want to go in there and start swirling it just to make sure that it's really starting to color evenly.

I'll swirl it every once in a while.

-Ohh.

-Again, we're gonna cook this on medium-low, slow it down.

So, we want it to get nice and dark, to the point where you start to see a little bit of smoke.

-Okay.

-Don't panic.

-[ Chuckles ] -We're getting there.

Swirling, twirling.

Oh!

-Copper penny.

-Copper penny.

Yeah, a really dirty one.

[ Both laugh ] -Old copper penny.

-Alright, so I do want to slide this off heat, and I'm going to add in the hot cream, a little bit at a time.

You want to keep your hand away from the opening here.

So, it's gonna be a little bit of violent bubbling happening.

-Ooh, I love it.

-And if we had used cold milk at this point, it would have been a lot worse with the bubbling.

-It would have been a volcano.

-Exactly.

-Mm, mm, mm.

-Oh, that smells so good.

-Oh, that smells delicious.

-Alright, so that espresso cream is incorporated.

And now we're gonna add a little bit of cream cheese.

It's 4 ounces of cream cheese cut into eight pieces here.

So, the cream cheese adds the right amount of body.

It basically stabilizes that filling.

I'm gonna put a lid on this.

Again, the pan is off heat at this point.

We're gonna let this soften for a few minutes and let the cream cheese finish softening.

-Voilà!

-Cream cheese still in there, but it's softer.

So now I can take a whisk and just whisk this in to incorporate.

And it's totally fine if you get a few bits of cream cheese that just don't seem to want to go in there.

They're all gonna be worked out later on.

Just keep whisking until it's mostly smooth.

Now pour this into another 1 cup of heavy cream, nice and cold.

It's gonna chill down the mixture quickly and also give us the amount that we need for our filling.

Now, it's obviously incredibly loose.

You wouldn't call that a filling.

-Mm-mm.

-I would call that a beverage.

So, we're gonna need this to set up.

But this is one of those components that could, really should be made in advance.

You can leave it in the fridge for up to four days.

-Ooh, I love that.

-But what's more important is that the temperature of this mixture is 40 degrees or lower.

I'm gonna put this in the fridge.

1 1/2 hours minimum.

Feeling dirty?

-[ Laughs ] Always.

[ Both laugh ] -We're gonna make some dirt.

-Huh!

-Some delicious dirt.

-Like, decorative dirt for around the cake.

-Little chocolate crumbles for all over our platter.

I've got 2 ounces of bittersweet chocolate and 6 tablespoons of unsalted butter that I've microwaved for about a minute until it's melted.

We'll just whisk these together.

We're gonna add 5 ounces or 1 cup of all-purpose flour.

1/2 cup of packed dark brown sugar.

Nice, deep, dark flavor.

It's about 3 1/2 ounces.

So, this is 1/2 cup of cocoa, or 1 ounce.

And you can use natural or Dutch process.

-Okay.

-And this is 1/4 teaspoon of salt.

All the salt I'm using here is just table salt for baking so that it dissolves easily and evenly.

Alright, I'm gonna switch over here to my spatula.

Just want to make sure I work in the brown sugar.

It's always the thing that just doesn't want to go in.

We're gonna make a very crumbly, thick dough.

Fudgy, it's chocolaty.

-You nailed it.

That looks like dirt.

-Alright.

So, I've got a sheet pan here lined with parchment, a little bit of cooking spray on there, and you want to start to crumble the dirt.

We just want to spread it apart there.

Alright, Julia, that looks great.

That was expert crumbling.

-Mm!

-So, this is going to bake in a 350-degree oven for 15 minutes.

Halfway through, I'll go in and stir it all.

And then after it's all baked, I'm gonna let it cool right here on the sheet pan on a wire rack till it's cooled completely, and it'll continue to crisp.

Alright, Julia, we are making a completely optional component of the Yule log.

-[ Laughs ] -But I really think it's very special.

It's the little meringues.

-Oh, yeah, the little mushrooms.

-The little mushrooms.

And usually, you see the little toadstools.

Sometimes they're decorated.

We're going a little bit more natural.

-Huh!

-A little bit more "Lord of the Rings," if you will.

-[ Laughs ] -We're gonna make bracket-style mushrooms.

-Oh, very cool.

-The kind that grow off the side of the logs, 'cause that's what you would see.

So, we need to make some meringue.

Very easy to do.

I've got three egg whites.

So, I'm gonna start on low for just about a minute, until the egg whites start to look nice and foamy.

There we go.

We're gonna add 1/4 teaspoon of cream of tartar.

Now, I've got a pinch of salt 'cause all meringues need salt.

Now, at this point, we're gonna go for a minute on medium-high, and I'm looking for soft peaks.

This is exactly what we want -- dripping soft peaks.

-Mm-hmm.

That's totally fine.

Alright.

So, I'm gonna turn this back to medium-high at this point and gradually add in 2/3 cup of sugar.

I'm gonna do this until all the sugar's incorporated.

All the sugar's in there.

Now we're gonna crank this up to high and let it run for about three to four minutes, until we get stiff peaks.

That's a beautiful stiff peak there.

Alright.

Put this into a piping bag.

It's been fitted with a 1/4-inch tip.

So, I'm just gonna scoop some of this in there and use the bag to scrape it off.

So, let me show you my little crafty table here.

-Mm!

-Alright.

We're gonna make two sheet trays of meringue mushrooms.

And it really doesn't matter what shape you want to do.

You can go free-form.

But I'm doing a variety of sizes and I just used a 2-inch cutter to make larger half moons and a 1-inch cutter to make 1 inch.

So, I just traced around with a little pencil, and then this gets turned over.

-Mm-hmm.

-Because nobody wants pencil shavings in their meringues.

We're gonna make two sheet trays of meringue mushrooms.

I like to do these kind of little fingers.

And then you want to go back in and fill in the middle.

Alright.

Now, I do want to add some stems because these are going to sit off the side of the log.

We want something to insert them into the cake itself.

So, I'll start over here.

I want the stem to be about a 1/2 inch wide and an inch long.

So, I'm just gonna dab my hand in some water because meringue does not like to stick to water, and I'm just gonna smooth that out.

It's great for any time that you're piping, whether it's meringues or whipped cream, anything that you want to kind of knock down these little bit of tips here.

Alright.

So, we're gonna put these in a 200-degree oven.

Got the rack set to upper middle and lower middle position 'cause we don't want them to color too much, but we want them to get nice and crisp.

-Alright.

How long is it gonna take?

-Two hours.

But then after that, I'm gonna turn off the oven and leave them in there for another 30 minutes.

They can cool down a little bit.

They'll get really nice and crisp.

And these absolutely can be made two weeks in advance.

-Mm-hmm.

♪ -Mini muffin tins are perfect for children's parties, but they're not just for kids.

They're great for any occasion where you want small treats like tiny muffins or donut holes or these financiers.

They're designed like full-size muffin tins, but with 24 holes instead of 12.

And the same factors came into play when we chose our winners.

Here's what you need to know.

Avoid aluminum or silicone pans.

These brown unevenly.

And skip pans with low, wide cups.

They make flat, sad little muffins.

Look at this tall one.

It looks so much better.

And unless you want your thumb to go right in the batter, you want to choose a pan with a nice broad rim for grabbing.

Our winner is this one -- the Williams Sonoma Goldtouch Pro Mini Muffin Pan for about $40.

Our best buy is the Wilton Perfect Results Mini Muffin and Cupcake Pan at about $13.

Both of these are made of steel, which gave us the most even baking and browning.

They have wide rims and were easy to hold.

They have nicely proportioned, narrow, tall cups for well-shaped baked goods, and excellent release from their nonstick surfaces.

With either of these, you'll be baking up a storm of perfect tiny treats.

-It's time for the cake!

-About time.

-Exactly.

Otherwise, what would we roll up into a fancy roulade?

Now, a lot of recipes will use a sponge cake.

It's a foam cake.

It gets lots of its aeration from beating eggs until they're nice and foamy.

One of the problems with sponge cakes is when you go to roll up, they start to crack.

-That's been my experience every time I've tried to make a Yule log.

-Exactly.

And also, another problem that we're mitigating is we're not using chocolate cake, which really cracks.

We're gonna make a vanilla cake that's a chiffon cake.

-Interesting.

-Yeah, so it has a little bit more fat in it.

It's gonna be way more flexible.

Super easy to put together.

I've got 5 1/3 ounces of cake flour.

-Mm-hmm.

-Nice and light.

We don't need a lot of gluten structure here.

It's a very shallow cake.

I've got 3/4 cup of granulated sugar.

1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder.

It's just a nice guarantee that this is gonna lift.

-Insurance.

-Exactly.

And 1/4 teaspoon of salt.

Again, just regular salt.

I'm gonna whisk these together.

So, now we're gonna add some of our wet ingredients.

I have five egg yolks.

They're gonna go right into the flour.

We don't need to mix all the wet together first and then add it.

This is so forgiving.

Again, it's a really, really low cake.

Don't need to build a lot of structure.

So, 1/2 cup of vegetable oil.

This, paired with the egg yolks, is gonna make a super tender cake that's not gonna crack.

-Good and flexible.

-Exactly.

I've got 1/4 cup of water and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract.

Whisk this together until there's no lumps.

Alright, that looks great.

Let's move on down to our machine.

We're gonna beat these egg whites, the five egg whites that came from the five egg yolks.

And I'm gonna add a little bit of cream of tartar.

Just 1/4 teaspoon.

I'm gonna start this on medium-low, just for about a minute until it's nice and foamy.

Alright.

So, it's nice and foamy.

Now I'm going to increase the speed to medium-high, let it go another 1 1/2 to 2 minutes, until we start to see stiff peaks.

-Okeydoke.

-Alright.

Ah, it looks like pillowy heaven.

-Mm.

Nice and stiff.

-Stiff peaks.

Yes, exactly.

Now we need to incorporate this foamy, light texture into this pretty thick batter here.

-Yeah, that is a thick batter.

-And if we incorporated it all at the same time, we would really deflate those egg whites.

So what I'm gonna do is I'm going to take a third of these egg whites, use my whisk to incorporate them.

-Mm-hmm.

-Lighten the load, so to speak.

And you don't have to be too careful at this point.

It's okay to knock out the bubbles.

You can see it just really changes the texture.

-Completely.

-But I am done with the whisk.

-Alright.

-And now I can add the rest of my egg whites.

I'm just going to slowly fold in the egg whites.

I don't want to see any trails of egg at this point.

So, I'm just cutting right through the middle and scraping the bowl.

What a lovely, light cake batter.

Enough of that.

-I see you have a pan ready to go.

-I do.

So, this is a half sheet pan here.

It's been sprayed with vegetable oil spray, a little piece of parchment, and then the parchment's sprayed as well.

We don't want this sticking to anything.

-[ Chuckles ] Got it.

-Alright.

So, now I'm gonna take an offset spatula.

I like to use a little one so it gets into the corners.

And just gently coax this to the sides of the pan.

And you can really see how foamy it is.

-Yeah.

-Before I put this in the oven, I want to give this pan a few whacks.

Any of the bubbles that are at the bottom, we want to give them a chance to escape.

So, this is ready to bake.

-Okay.

-350 degrees, only for 12 to 14 minutes.

I'll rotate it halfway through baking.

-Ooh!

-It's a sweet little cake.

-It's nice and flat.

-Yes.

Alright.

Our little chiffon cake.

-Mm!

-Alright.

Best way to know that this is done is to press it lightly with your fingers.

Yeah, see, it comes right back.

It's like a little trampoline.

Now, we need to get this out of the pan quite quickly.

And it has separated from the sides, but I want to take a paring knife and just run it all the way around -- especially you can see here where it's still attached.

There we go.

I'm going to invert it onto another wire rack.

-Presto chango!

-Presto chango.

If you could take that rack away for me.

-Sure thing.

-Thank you.

There we go.

-Nicely done.

-We need to get the parchment off of there, carefully.

If a little bit of the cake crust comes off, that's totally fine.

Isn't that gorgeous?

-Well done.

-Alright, so now... we got to train it.

-Mm-hmm.

-We got to teach it how to roll.

Really, at this point, it is important to pre-roll the cake before you fill it.

And that way, it'll have some muscle memory.

I've got this dampened towel.

And it's barely dampened.

-It's a thin towel, too.

-Thin towel, and not really any texture to it.

You don't want to get a waffle weave in there.

-[ Laughs ] -Alright.

I'm going to put this rack right on top.

Presto chango!

Carefully remove that top rack.

Alright.

Cake is nice and warm, flexible.

We're gonna start rolling it up.

-Look at that.

-Look at that.

-It's so flexible.

-And you know what?

The damp towel idea came from our friend Julia Child.

-Aha.

-Yes, exactly.

-She knew what she was doing.

-She sure did.

So, we're gonna leave this right here on the rack and let it cool completely with the towel on, nice damp towel, for about an hour.

-Okay.

-Julia, do you see that off in the distance over there?

-Is that the finish line?

-That's the finish line.

-[ Laughing ] Aha!

-We're coming near the end.

-Is that the Yule log at the end of the road?

-Exactly.

We do need something to frost this with.

-Mm-hmm.

-We're not just gonna make a buttercream.

We're gonna make a ganache.

-Lovely.

-It's so good, so potent.

I've got 6 ounces of bittersweet chocolate -- really good, at least 60% cacao chocolate here.

I'm going to add a little bit of corn syrup.

Just 2 teaspoons.

-Mm-hmm.

-Just makes for a more luscious ganache.

-Nice shine.

-Exactly.

And we have here 3/4 cup of heavy cream.

I've just brought it up to a simmer because now we're gonna pour it right over our chocolate.

Ahhhhh.

Alright.

Since it's a ganache, as you know, you pour over the hot cream, you let it sit for a minute before we stir it.

-Alright.

-So, it's been about a minute, the chocolate's started to soften, so now I can go in there and give it a whisk.

-Mm.

That's very satisfying.

-Yes.

-[ Chuckles ] -This is incredibly satisfying.

Oh, look at that.

We don't want to spend too much time here with the whisk.

We don't want to start to incorporate air at this point.

I'm gonna leave this to cool for about an hour.

-Okay.

-Alright, so in the meantime, back to our filling.

-Mm-hmm.

-It's really well chilled.

You can see it's kind of pudding-like.

It's thickened up.

So, now we want to create a nice thickened filling.

Give it a good, nice whip on high speed for about one to two minutes until it's really thick and fluffy.

-Oh, look how that thickened up.

Mm.

-Look at that.

-Nice.

That's a filling that's not gonna go anywhere.

-What will I do with this?

-I have an idea!

-Alright.

So, now we're gonna unroll the cake.

Alright.

If a little bit of that cake gets on the towel, it's gonna wash right out.

-[ Chuckles ] I like how the cake has really held onto that curled shape.

-Yes, exactly.

Muscle memory, remember?

So, we have our filling.

Take this little offset spatula.

I'm gonna spread it evenly.

And because this filling is gonna stay put -- just like you said, it's not really going anywhere -- I can go all the way to the sides here.

Now, I do want to leave a 1/2-inch border at the top and the bottom here.

-Okay.

-I don't need it to be super smooth-looking, 'cause it's gonna get rolled up, but I do want it to be even.

-Let me take this from you.

-Alright.

So, I -- [ Chuckles ] -Mmm!

-Exactly.

Alright.

I'm, again, going to start rolling from the short side up.

-Look at that.

Not a tear in sight.

-Not a tear in sight.

Isn't that beautiful?

-That is beautiful.

-One of the best parts of this cake, too -- it's not just tasty, it's good-looking.

This is going to go into the fridge.

We want that filling to set back up, so at least 20 minutes.

You can do this up to two days in advance.

So, into the fridge.

It's all coming together now.

-[ Chuckles ] -Almost time to frost, but we want to tidy up a little bit.

I'm gonna take my knife and just trim about 1/2 inch from either side to tidy things up here.

Yum!

-Oh, that's beautiful inside.

-Uh-huh.

Same thing over here.

We're gonna make a little branch stump, and we want it to be relatively substantial.

I'm gonna angle it at about 45 degrees.

And I want this end over here to be 1 1/2 inches.

Just got to commit, Julia.

-Ha!

-Straight through here.

Ta-da!

-Gorgeous.

-I have two sheets of parchment here, 4x12 inch.

This is gonna help to keep that platter clean.

Right about here looks fandabidozi.

-Aww.

-Alright.

So, got to have a method of sticking this to that.

-Mm-hmm.

-So, I'm gonna take about a tablespoon of our beautiful bittersweet chocolate ganache.

-Yum.

-And I'm going to kind of glue it.

Tastiest glue ever.

-[ Chuckles ] -And the cake is pretty cold, so that ganache actually starts to set up rather quickly.

So, now I'm gonna coat the rest of this with ganache, but I am gonna leave these little ends of the log and the stump exposed because it's so pretty.

-It is a looker.

-And it's a cut log.

You would see in there.

So, just start coating.

You can see, I mean, the ganache is just kind of a dream.

It just smooths out so lovely.

Then we start to work on the little stump.

Alright, where I get to these little angles, just really take your time.

That almost looks like bark on its own, right?

-[ Chuckling ] It does.

-And you could stop at this point.

But we're gonna use a fork to make a nice, swirly bark pattern.

So, I'm just gonna take my fork and kind of press it there.

And then you want to follow that pattern, but not too perfectly.

-That's fun.

-Alright.

So, now I want the ganache to firm up a little bit.

So we're gonna put this into the fridge and let it sit there for 20 minutes.

-Okay.

-20 minutes in the fridge.

So, we are going to add some of our beautiful crumbly chocolate soil.

-That is fun.

-Yes.

I think that's enough of our earth.

Now, this is ground pistachios, another optional component, but I think it really makes this look more like forest floor.

Alright.

We don't need to use all of the mushrooms that we made, but you do want to pick out the ones that you like the most.

In order to get these stems into the cake, we want to use a paring knife to create a little pathway so we can slide them in easily.

And I think I'm gonna go for one of these, these wee ones here.

-[ Laughs ] -Isn't that adorable?

-I love that.

-Gonna make a couple more right underneath.

I'm gonna switch it up here and I'm gonna use one of these larger ones.

They tend to grow in little groups, don't they?

-Yes.

That is spectacular, Bridget.

-I'm not even done.

-Really?

-Because it's winter in Narnia.

-Oh, and there's snow.

-And there's snow.

So, I've got a little bit of powdered sugar here.

I like to go light on the powdered sugar.

So, this first cut is going to be for you, and it's going to interfere with this little mushroom here.

So I want to pull this out and put it on your plate.

-Aw, thank you.

I've got a very sharp knife, and this is a very rich cake.

-Oh, beautiful!

Would you like some forest floor?

-Yes, please.

-Alright.

Shoveling up dirt for you, Julia.

-[ Chuckles ] I cannot wait any longer.

Mmm.

-Mm-hmm.

[ Chuckles ] -The filling is amazing.

Oh, you get the caramel, you get the espresso.

And I appreciate that the filling's not super sweet.

-It's not super sweet, and it's got that really, really deep caramel flavor.

-And the cake is soft and tender.

-And this is out of the fridge.

-Mm-hmm.

-And that's the beauty of the chiffon cake, is that you can refrigerate it and it still stays nice and soft.

-This cake is as fun to eat as it was to watch you make, Bridget.

-Absolutely.

-So, there you have it.

If you want to make a fantastical Yule log cake, add cream cheese to a caramel-espresso filling, make a chiffon cake with vegetable oil and whipped egg whites, roll the warm cake up in a damp towel and let it cool, and frost with a chocolate ganache.

From "America's Test Kitchen," the last word on bûche de Noel, a caramel-espresso Yule log.

You can find this recipe and all the recipes from this season, along with select episodes and our product reviews, at our website -- americastestkitchen.com/tv.

This is incredible.

-Well, while you were talking, some gnomes came and ate some of your cake.

-[ Laughs ] -Let us help you with dinner tonight.

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