Chocolate Peppermint Bûche de Noël

I’ve made a Bûche de Noël every Christmas for several years. This year however, Christmas came in a flurry of parties and house guests, and before I knew it, our yuletide cake was looking more and more like a bûche d’hiver (winter log).

Since we were breaking with tradition anyways, I decided to change things up a bit with a peppermint version. While this may not seem strikingly original to most, my minty suggestion was met with raised eyebrows and a heavy dose of skepticism.

The base for this cake is the same as in a previous post, so I’ve only given the barest of instructions. The mascarpone cream is a stabilized whipped cream, and my go to filling/icing when I want something light and not too sweet. My original plan was to add crushed mints or candy cane to the cream filling, but it turns out that candy canes are hard to find in the middle of January! Instead, I mixed in a handful of red and pink sprinkles that melted into little dots of colour.

Chocolate Peppermint Bûche de Noël
Adapted from Food and Wine

Ingredients
7 egg yolks
7 egg whites
¾ cup sugar (12 Tbsp, divided)
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted to remove clumps
1 ½ tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp cream of tartar (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375F (190C).
2. In a large bowl, whip egg whites and salt until soft peaks form at high speed. Add 6 tbsp of sugar and cream of tartar and beat until stiff and glossy.
3. In a large bowl, beat yolks with 6 tbsp of sugar at high speed until the mixture becomes pale yellow and fluffy (about 3-5 minutes) leaving a ribbon trail when the beaters are lifted. Blend in cocoa powder and vanilla. 
4. Using a spatula, fold 1/3 of the beaten egg whites into the yolk mixture, then fold in the remaining egg whites until no streaks remain.
5. Spread the batter evenly on the parchment paper lined rimmed cookie sheet/large jelly roll pan. Bake for ~15 minutes, rotating the pan halfway.
6. Turn cake out onto a fresh sheet of parchment paper. Remove the old parchment paper and dust cake with cocoa powder. Starting at the short end, roll up cake and cool for 30 minutes or refrigerate.
7. Unroll cake and fill with mascarpone cream and reroll. Ice with chocolate-peppermint ganache. Store cake in fridge.

Mascarpone Cream

100g (1/2 cup) mascarpone cheese

50g icing sugar

250g heavy whipping cream (1 cup)

Pink and red sprinkles or crushed candy cane/mints (optional)

Directions:

1. In a mixer, beat whipping cream until soft peaks form.
2. Add icing sugar and mascarpone cheese until well blended.
3. Stir in a handful of pink and red sprinkles or crushed candy for colour.

Chocolate-Peppermint Ganache
¼ cup of bitter-sweet chocolate chips (I like Ghirardelli Chocolate 60% Cacao Bittersweet chips)
¼ cup of whipping cream
¼ tsp of peppermint extract (or to taste)

Directions:

1. Place the chocolate chips and whipping cream in a microwave container.
2. Heat in the microwave for 1 minute.
3. Mix well with a spoon. At first the chocolate will look all grainy, but if you continue to stir, it will melt into the cream and be smooth. Stir in peppermint extract.
4. Let this cool to room temperature before decorating the cake.