Wow, when they say “daring”, those bakers MEAN IT!

Today is Daring Bakers Challenge Post Day! I was awful at photo documentation this challenge. By the time I remembered I needed photos, I was done. I should have taken pictures of all the dishes I used. I don’t think I’ve ever used so many dishes to make something! LOL I’m glad I didn’t decide to make this the night before my work holiday potluck. It was very, very labor- and time-intensive, and I would have been up ALL NIGHT.

This month’s challenge was hosted by Hilda of Saffron & Blueberry and Marion from Il en faut peu puor etre heureux. We had to make a French Yule Log, courtesy of Flore (http://plaisirgourmand.perso.cegetel.net/index.html). I can’t read the website because it’s in French, but I didn’t see the recipe on the website here. If you speak French or are feeling daring on your own accord, I suggest trying to find it. Or check out Hilda’s December Challenge Post for the basic recipe.

I spent literally all day in the kitchen yesterday, making this dessert. Thankfully, I had the apartment to myself. First things first, I ran to the store to get some things I didn’t actually have (like enough chocolate, and some Special K for one of the layers). We had to make and include 6 separate elements into the Yule Log. The recipe was 18 pages of instructions and possible flavor substitutions. I stuck with chocolate, which seemed to be the easiest to find ingredients for if I didn’t have them on hand.

The six basic elements are as follows:

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

The first element – Dacquoise Biscuit. This is a biscuit comprised basically of almond meal, sugar, and egg whites. My oven, which is notorious for cooking things in a fraction of the time called for in the recipe, actually seemed to take the whole 15 minutes the recipe said it would. I spread the batter out a bit too thin in some places, and those places burned, but over all, it was okay. The leftover pieces were delicious.

After the biscuit was finished, I put together the Creme Brulee section. It needed to infuse for an hour, bake for an hour, and freeze for another hour. I boiled everything together as the recipe called for, then I let it sit and infuse. I made a vanilla creme brulee. I did have a problem with the parchment paper coming unattached from my pan, which created a weird little section where part of it broke off, but other than that, I didn’t have any problems. My oven cooked this a bit faster than the recipe amount, but I think it came out fine anyway.

While the creme brulee was baking, I made the crisp insert. I couldn’t find the recipe for the praline, so I ended up skipping that part, but I made a chocolate crisp. I melted the chocolate together and crushed some Special K (since, you know, it’s healthy … LOL), then stirred it all together to coat the cereal. This was my favorite part of the recipe, and I could see myself making chocolate coated Special K just for fun. I rolled the chocolate/Special K mixture between a sheet of wax paper folded in half an stuck it in the fridge. The piece that was made after rolling out was way too big for my mold, so I snacked on the leftovers while making the rest of the sections.

After that, I set about making the Chocolate mousse. This ended up being a lot easier than I expected it to be, even though I was certain I screwed up the Pate a Bomb. I actually did screw the mousse up because I somehow had the wrong amount of cream needed to mix in at the end. After it set, I went back and mixed in the rest of the cream, and it became a bit lumpy. I let it set again, and it still came out moussey, but there were lumps no matter how hard or often I mixed it together. No worries, though, it tasted just fine. I would make the mousse again on its own, though, for sure.

After the mouse, I made the Milk-Dark Chocolate Ganache, and it was also very tasty. I didn’t have any problems with it, and I think it probably came out close to perfect. After the ganache, I made the icing, which also came out with no problems. I did end up having to make another batch of the icing though, because even though it coated the spoon, I couldn’t make the icing stay on the sides of the pan.

After the icing was made, I started assembling the mold.

Layer 1 – Icing.
Layer 2 – 1/3 Mousse
Layer 3 – Creme Brulee Insert (yum)
Layer 4 – 1/3 Mousse
Layer 5 – Chocolate Crisp
Layer 6 – 1/3 Mousse
Layer 7 – Chocolate Ganache
Layer 8 – Almond Dacquoise

Then I stuck the thing in the freezer for a few hours. I couldn’t wait until the next day, so after the whole thing set in the freezer a bit, I unmolded it onto a plate. I realized that the sides didn’t have any icing on them, so I made another batch of icing & poured it over the whole thing. I froze it a little longer, then took it out to cut a slice.

It definitely isn’t as pretty as some of the others I’ve seen, but it is delicious! It’s very rich, and I think if I were to do this again, I’d try some of the other flavors instead of making it Chocolate Fest 2008. I think it’s TOO much chocolate, as if there ever were such a thing. These challenges have been SO fun… I’ve made things I never thought I’d ever make, and I’m very excited about it. I can’t wait to see what 2009 will bring, but here’s hoping next month’s challenge is a LITTLE less involved. LOL