christmas buche 2024

Christmas bûche

A simple bûche to make and enhanced by a plated dessert balancing the flavors.This bûche is made up of a rolled Viennese biscuit, a vanilla dulce de leche, a creamy whipped vanilla ganache, a caramel ice cream, a coconut crisp and a vanilla custard sauce.

⏱️ Time: 2 h

🔪 Difficulty: Level 2/5

⚠️ Allergens: gluten, egg products, alcohol, lactose

⚙️ Options:

Required Ingredients

Number of servings:

Ingredient	Quantity	Unit
Preparation 1: Vanilla Whipped Ganache
White Chocolate	45	g
30% Cream 1	118	g
30% Cream 2	77	g
Gelatin Sheet	2	g
Vanilla	1	pod
Preparation 2: Caramel Ice Cream
Granulated Sugar	30	g
Glucose	20	g
Milk	42	g
Egg Yolks	25	g
Granulated Sugar	10	g
30% Whipped Cream	65	g
Preparation 3: Viennese Biscuit
Egg Yolks	21	g
Whole Eggs	55	g
Granulated Sugar	43	g
Egg Whites	35	g
Sugar	15	g
Flour T45	29	g
Preparation 4: Coconut Crunch
Butter	48	g
Granulated Sugar	40	g
Grated Coconut	20	g
Salt	1.4	g
Flour T45	40	g
Preparation 5: Dulce de Leche
Milk	200	g
Cream	50	g
Granulated Sugar	62	g
Glucose	25	g
Honey	12	g
Preparation 6: Vanilla Sauce
Milk	150	g
Egg Yolks	50	g
Vanilla Powder	1	g
Granulated Sugar	20	g

Step 1: Whipped vanilla ganache

Rehydrate your gelatin in water.
Weigh and bring to the boil the small amount of cream.
Pour in three times on the white chocolate, incorporating 50% of the cream the first time and mixing with a spatula.
Mix using a hand blender.
Continue to mix and add the rest of the cream.
Cover with cling film and set aside at 4°C.

Chef Vico's tip: For an ideal result, a whipped ganache must rest in the fridge for at least a few hours, ideally overnight. If you are pressed for time, you can put it in the freezer to speed up the cooling.

Congratulations, step 1 is completed ! Let’s continue !

Step 2: Caramel ice cream

Make a caramel with the sugar and glucose.
Reduce the heat with your hot milk, whisking it together.
Beat your egg yolks with a small amount of sugar and pour your previous mixture over it, stirring well.
Return to the heat and cook at 82°C at the tablecloth.
Cool to 40°C and gently incorporate your whipped cream.
Cool quickly to 4°C.

Chef Vico's tip: I advise you to cook your caramel well so as not to have an overly sweet taste. This ice cream is intended to balance the sweetness of the rest of the dessert with a slight bitterness.

Step 3: Viennese biscuit

Beat your egg yolks with your whole eggs and your ribbon sugar.
In another bowl, beat your egg whites with your sugar until stiff.
Mix the two, gradually incorporating the egg whites.
Finish by incorporating the flour and mixing with the Maryse delicately.

Chef Vico's tip: To beat the yolks more easily, I advise you to place your bowl in a bain-marie to raise the temperature to around 40°C, which greatly facilitates the beating of the eggs. This biscuit mixture is quite fragile, I advise you to avoid mixing it too much at the risk of making it collapse.

Step 4: Crispy coconut

Preheat your oven to 155°C.
Soften your butter and mix with the rest of the ingredients.
Spread on a silicone mat and bake for about 9 minutes until nicely colored.
Remove from the oven and immediately cut the shapes you want for the dressing.

Chef Vico's Tip: It is much easier to cut your biscuit while it is still warm to avoid breakage 🙂

Step 5: Dulce de leche

Make a caramel with the sugar, glucose and honey.
Cook with your milk and hot cream.
Let reduce over low heat for at least 10 minutes until thickened.
Reserve at room temperature for assembly.

Chef Vico's tip: I personally add vanilla to this mixture, you can also infuse your milk/cream with spices beforehand to give it even more flavor! 🙂

Step 6: Vanilla Sauce

Heat your milk and infuse your vanilla for at least 15 min.
Whiten your yolks with your caster sugar.
Pour your hot milk over it, cook at 80°C.
Reserve at 4°C.

Chef Vico's tip: The best thing is to cold infuse your vanilla into your milk a few hours before.

Step 7: Assembly and finishing

Cut your biscuit into a nice rectangle, place it on a sheet of baking paper.
Spread your dulce de leche, leaving space on the edges (about 1 cm).
Whip your ganache not too firmly, and then spread it. Be careful not to put too much otherwise the closure will be complicated.
Roll up your log and tighten well with your parchment paper.
Trim the ends for a clean visual. Set aside your buche.
Put your ice cream mix in your ice cream maker and smooth well. Set aside in the freezer for dressing.

Tip from Chef Vico: In this case, I prefer to roll my bûche widthwise to have less thickness, I find it more pleasant when dressing on the plate. You can put your log in the freezer for 20 minutes to set well. To cover your biscuit, you can pipe your whipped ganache as you wish. Personally, I cover by adding whipped ganache on one end of my log and stretching it using a guitar sheet.

Congratulations, you have completed the whole recipe! All you have to do now is plate and treat your guests! 😊

Plating Suggestion

Pre-cut 2 portions of bûche per person. Place them on the plate, each facing in a different direction at opposite ends of the plate. Pipe a line of dulce de leche and place your coconut crunch to connect the two bûche portions.

Pipe your whipped ganache onto the coconut crunch using a 10mm nozzle. Add dollops of dulce de leche in between and place a piece of coconut crunch on the side to hold your ice cream.