Daring Baker French Yule Log

This month's challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux. They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand.

So, what is a French Yule Log? In France you can buy two kinds of Yule log, either the Genoise and Buttercream type, or what is more commonly purchased which is a frozen Yule Log very reminiscent of an ice cream cake, only often it’s not made of ice cream but rather frozen mousse of some sort. In French this is called an entremets which is sometimes loosely translated in English as simply a cream dessert.

I served my yule log for dessert Christmas Eve. It was a hit except for the icing, which as other Daring Bakers experienced, turned out really gummy. We just peeled that off and it was delicious. I chose a chocolate creme brulee, vanilla mousse, chocolate crisp insert, dark-milk ganache insert, chocolate dacquoise, and milk chocolate icing.

I made my crisp with 1/4 c. Rice Krispies and almond paste, and it was my husband's favorite layer. I broke it up before adding it after reading comments, so it would be easier to cut. I loved the chocolate dacquoise and ate up all the scraps. I was glad I went with the vanilla mousse, it was delicious and a nice contrast to the chocolate - although it set up very quickly and I didn't need to add the gelatin.


I forgot to line the pan before I put the mousse in, so I had to unmold it like you would a jello - loosed the edges with a hot knife and then set it in hot water for a few seconds until it came free from the glass loaf pan. I felt very lucky it unmolded so easily!


I was really intimidated to do this challenge, there were so many layers, ingredients and time consuming cooking and freezing elements. Also, I wasn't sure if my family would like it, so I only made half the recipe. But I'm very glad I made it. My family thought it was wonderful. So thanks for another great challenge. I learned a lot!

Make sure you visit the Daring Bakers Blogroll to see hundreds of beautiful yule logs!

Cinnamon Apple Candy Cane Kolache with Cinnamon Drizzle

Every year we have family over to our house for Christmas breakfast and every year I make Kolaches. Kolaches are a Czechoslovakian pastry. We are not Czech, but when I saw a recipe for them in Better Homes and Gardens in April, 1997, while waiting to see a doctor, I knew my family would love them. So I asked the receptionist to make a copy of the recipe for me and I've been making them ever since.

This year, Lori at Recipe Girl posted a fun recipe for Candy Cane Coffee Cake. So I thought it would be fun to make Kolaches in the shape of a candy cane. Which I guess means they weren't technically Kolaches anymore. But delicious just the same!


I used my favorite roll recipe for the dough (adding a teaspoon of vanilla) and the Daring Baker's apple filling recipe. Jenny at Picky Palate has me addicted to cinnamon chips and I thought they would be a great addition to the apple filling. So I added half a cup of chips to the filling and added a cinnamon drizzle on top. It tasted amazing! Definitely one I'll make next year!

Create Braid:

1. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into a 15 x 20-inch rectangle, ¼ inch thick. (I usually roll it out on floured parchment.) If the dough seems elastic and shrinks back when rolled, let it rest for a few minutes, then roll again. Place the dough (parchment) on the baking sheet.
2. Along one long side of the pastry make parallel, 5-inch-long cuts with a knife or rolling pastry wheel, (I use a pizza cutter) each about 1 inch apart. Repeat on the opposite side, making sure to line up the cuts with those you’ve already made.
3. Spoon the filling you’ve chosen to fill your braid down the center of the rectangle. Starting with the top and bottom “flaps”, fold the top flap down over the filling to cover. Next, fold the bottom “flap” up to cover filling. This helps keep the braid neat and helps to hold in the filling. Now begin folding the cut side strips of dough over the filling, alternating first left, then right, left, right, until finished. Trim any excess dough and tuck in the ends.


Cinnamon drizzle recipe from the package:

2/3 cup chips
1 1/2 teaspoons shortening (do not use butter, margarine, spread or oil)

Melt in microwave at high for 1 minute; stir until chips are melted and mixture is smooth.

Favorite Dinner Rolls

My sister asked me to bring homemade dinner rolls to our family party. So I spent most of the morning Saturday making 5 dozen rolls. I really think they were the best rolls I've ever made. Thanks in part to all the bread I've been baking for Daring Bakers.

I used my favorite roll recipe, but made a few changes. I added 1 c. whole wheat pastry flour, 2 t. wheat gluten, and did a double rise. The dough was so easy to work with, the rolls were light but with just enough texture from the whole wheat pastry flour. This will definitely be my go to recipe in the future!

Dinner Rolls

2 c. bread flour

1 c. whole wheat pastry flour

2 t. vital wheat gluten

1 pkg. active dry yeast

1 c. milk (120º to 130º)

1/4 c. sugar

1/4 c. butter

1 t. salt

1 egg

Mix 1 cup bread flour and 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour, wheat gluten, and yeast. Heat and stir milk, sugar, butter, and salt until warm. Add to flour mixture, add egg. Beat at low speed for 1/2 minute. Beat 3 minutes at high speed.

Stir in the remaining flour to make a moderately stiff dough. (Add more or less if necessary.) Knead until smooth (6 to 8 min.). Shape into a ball. Place in greased bowl, turn. Cover, let rise until double (45 to 60 Min.). Punch down, let rise again (30 min.), Punch down, let rest 10 min and shape into desired shapes. Cover. Let rise until double (30 min.). Bake at 400º for 8 to 10 minutes. Makes 18 rolls.

Chicken Sausage Pasta Bake

When I saw the wonderful Chicken Sausage Florentine Rigatoni Jenny posted on Picky Palate, I knew I would make it. Harmons grocery store makes a wonderful chicken sausage that my son, Cole, really loves. So I knew he would love this pasta, but everyone loved it and they all wanted thirds.

I didn't have all the ingredients on hand, so I just substituted what we had, and it was wonderful. I added some red pepper flakes to spice it up just a bit. Thanks Jenny for sharing the recipe. I love the flavor the fire roasted tomatoes adds. Here's my version

Chicken Sausage Pasta Bake

2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb ground chicken sausage
½ teaspoon salt
3 15 oz can Muir Glen Fire Roasted Tomatoes
1 t. dried basil

1/4 t. red pepper flakes
1 lb dry penne pasta
1 c. shredded cheddar jack cheese
1/2 c. shredded Italian cheese blend

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Heat oil into a large skillet over medium heat. Saute onion for 5 minutes or until softened. Stir in garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add chicken sausage and salt; cook until cooked through.

2. Process tomatoes into a food processor until nearly smooth. Add to skillet along with fresh basil. Reduce heat to low and simmer.

3. Cook rigatoni according to packaging directions. Drain and transfer to sauce. Transfer to a 9x13 inch baking dish and sprinkle with shredded cheese. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Buttermilk Cornbread

My seventh grade son is studying nutrition in his health class right now and for homework he was assigned a report on corn. The teacher said they could bring in food, as part of the report, for the other students to sample. So he asked me if we could make cornbread for him to take to school.

Ordinarly, I make Marie Calender's cornbread from a mix, but I thought for this occasion, I should help him make it from scratch. I found a highly rated recipe on Allrecipes - Grandmother's Buttermilk Cornbread. It's a great one bowl recipe and I would definitely make it again. It's nice and sweet, and very moist. We doubled the recipe and used three disposable 8x8 pans with a nice fluted edge and only baked it for about 18 min. I sent two to school and we ate one at home.

INGREDIENTS
1 stick butter
2/3 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease an 8 inch square pan.

Melt butter in large skillet. Remove from heat and stir in sugar. Quickly add eggs and beat until well blended. Combine buttermilk with baking soda and stir into mixture in pan. Stir in cornmeal, flour, and salt until well blended and few lumps remain. Pour batter into the prepared pan.

Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

A Fiesta Giveaway

I was emailing with HoneyB this morning about needing some cute dishes for my blog pictures, and then Megan posted about a FiestaWare giveaway by Jaci at Ravings of a Mad Housewife. "Homer Laughlin China Company is giving FOUR 4-piece place settings to one lucky reader! That’s 4 dinner plates, 4 bread plates, 4 bowls, and 4 mugs—a $200 value—enough to treat your family to a Fiesta." Stop by Jaci's fun blog to enter. I think they would look really great at my house!

An Award, A Hug and Pork Tenderloin

Megan at Megan's Munchies gave me the Superior Scribbler award! Megan has a great blog with lots of wonderful holiday ideas/recipes on her blog and is the creator of the Holy Yum award. So be sure and stop by her blog. Thanks Megan!

Here's the rules:

1. Post the award on your blog
2. Link to those who gave it to you
3. Link the original posts
4. Pass it on to five deserving people
5. Post these rules for your recipients

I am passing this award to the following terrific blogs:

Not Quite Nigella
Two Peas and Their Pod
Aggie's Kitchen
Megans Cooking
Jersey Girl Cooks

A Hug

Barbara from Winosandfoodies has been receiving chemotherapy treatment for cancer over the last several weeks and food bloggers around the world (headed up by Bron and Ilva) thought it would be a good idea to send Barb cyberspace hugs to lift her spirits during this difficult time.

I felt an immediate connection to Barbara who lives in Queensland, Australia, not only because she shares my name, but because I was able to visit beautiful Queensland recently. So Barbara I send you a great big hug, a wish for continued success in your battle and for peace and joy in the upcoming year!

My recipe is inspired by the Tangerine Olive Oil (Agrumato) that I bought at the Rock's Food Market on our recent visit to Sydney. They were giving samples of it and it was so delicious I couldn't resist buying a little bottle.


In fact, I realized after I got home that many of my souvenirs are food related - the Arrabbiata spices (let me know if you have a recipe for this!), the wooden tongs from Kuranda, the re-usable shopping bags (now I have one from Italy, Canada and several from Australia), not to mention the chocolate-covered macadamia nuts I brought home as gifts.

The oil sat on my counter for a week as I wondered how best to use it. I finally decided it would be great with the pork tenderloin I had in the freezer and I based the recipe on Martha Stewart's Pork Tenderloin with Honeyed Butter.

It was absolutely wonderful! The browned, sweet outside and tender juice meat was really complemented by the tangerine flavor of the oil.



Honey Tangerine Pork Loin

2 tablespoons Tangerine Olive Oil
1 tablespoon honey
1 1/2 pounds pork tenderloin, trimmed of silver skin
Salt and pepper

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a Dutch oven or ovenproof skillet, heat oil and honey over medium heat. Season pork with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and place in pan. Cook until underside is lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Turn pork, and cook until other side is browned, about 5 minutes more. Lower the heat if the honey begins to burn.

Put pan in the oven, and roast until pork is just cooked through, 7 to 10 minutes.

Australian Thanksgiving

My husband decided for his 50th birthday he wanted to dive the Great Barrier Reef and he wanted to take the whole family with him. So we saved for several years and although his birthday was in January, we finally made it to Australia in November.


Since we were traveling over Thanksgiving and we were staying in an apartment, we thought it would be wonderful to celebrate Thanksgiving with a traditional dinner. Australian's don't celebrate Thanksgiving of course, but I found that they don't usually even sell turkeys in their grocery stores. So I felt very fortunate when Australian food blogger, Lorraine, Not Quite Nigella, suggested David Jones food hall as a place I may be able to buy a turkey.

David Jones food hall is a great specialty food store on the bottom floor of an upscale department store. Not only did they have a wonderful bone-in turkey breast that we were able to buy, but we went back almost every day to buy something wonderful to eat. They had a great bakery and huge, delicious chocolate covered strawberries.

I decided to bring from home many of the ingredients I would need to make our traditional Thanksgiving dinner - green jello, crushed pineapple, jellied cranberry sauce, stuffing spices, a Reynold's roasting bag, popup timer and my recipes.


The kitchen didn't have many pans or utensils for cooking, so we had to buy disposable pans for the turkey, stuffing and jello, but they worked out great. Especially since I had brought the roasting bag and popup timer - the turkey was perfectly cooked, juicy and delicious!

We completed our meal with some bake and serve rolls, corn and an apple tart from David Jones. Not the fancy Thanksgiving meal with lots of side dishes we would have had at home, but everything was delicious and we were very grateful for a wonderful year. And the wonderful opportunity we had to travel to beautiful Australia!

The trip was amazing. The Australians were so friendly and helpful. You can view my pictures (there's a lot of them) here if you'd like to see them.

Thanks to everyone who has taken the time this year to visit my blog. It has really been a fun adventure and everyone has been so great to comment on my posts. Meg was kind enough to give me an award while I was gone. I'll blog more about that soon.

Here are the two family-favorite, traditional recipes I took to Australia.

Green Jello Cream Cheese Salad

1 large package lime jello
2 c. water, divided
1 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 small can crushed pineapple
1/2 pt. whipping cream

Dissolve jello in 1 cup hot water. Add 1 cup cold water. Chill. Mix cream cheese and pineapple, do not drain juice. Blend jello and cream cheese mixture. Chill until set. Fold in whipping cream that has been whipped. Chill.

Stuffing

3/4 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup butter
1 cup celery, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 loaf bread
2 t. salt
1 t. sage
1 t. poultry seasoning
dash pepper

Simmer butter, water, celery and onion until tender. Add spices. Pour over bread. Mix well. Stuff into turkey or roast covered in the oven for 30 minutes at 350º, uncover the last 5 minutes to toast the bread slightly.