Sweet dreams
Don’t like Christmas pudding? Here are some alternatives to the traditional festive stodginess from two master practitioners of the art of desserts, Michel Roux and Sarah Raven.
Michel Roux’s Yule log with Grand Marnier
“The classic Yule log is the perfect finale to a Christmas feast,” says Michel Roux.
Serves 6-8. Ingredients: For the ganache: 200g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), broken up; 200g double cream; Splash of Grand Marnier. For the sponge: 6 free-range eggs, separated; 150g caster sugar, plus extra for dusting; 70g plain flour; 30g pure cocoa powder; Pinch of salt; 30g butter, melted; 2tbsp icing sugar. For the caramelised hazelnuts: About 20 whole peeled hazelnuts; 250g caster sugar.
Start by making the ganache. Put the chocolate in a bowl. Pour the cream into a pan and bring it to the boil, then pour it over the chocolate and mix until smooth. Leave to cool, then add Grand Marnier to taste. Whisk until light and fluffy. For the sponge, line a baking tray measuring about 30 x 40 centimetres with baking parchment. Preheat the oven to 200C/Fan 180C/Gas 6. Beat the egg yolks with 100 grams of the sugar until pale, then add the flour, cocoa powder and salt, followed by the melted butter. Whisk the whites until frothy, then add the remaining sugar and continue to beat until stiff. Fold the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture, then spread over the baking tray. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes.
Lay a clean tea towel on your work surface and turn the sponge out on to it. Remove the baking parchment. Dust the sponge with a little of the caster sugar, spread some of the ganache over it and roll the sponge up as tightly as possible into a neat log. Leave the sponge to cool, then cover it with the rest of the ganache and leave it to chill in the fridge.
To make the hazelnut decoration, stick a toothpick into each hazelnut and set them aside. Have something ready to stand the toothpicks into while the nuts harden, such as a piece of polystyrene. Heat the sugar in a heavy-based pan until you have a golden-brown caramel. One by one, dip the hazelnuts into the caramel, then stand them in whatever you have prepared and leave them to harden. Drizzle any remaining caramel in a criss-cross pattern over a piece of baking parchment and leave it to harden. Dust the log with icing sugar and arrange the caramelised nuts on top. Scatter over the pieces of caramel to look like hay.
■ Michel Roux At Home by Michel Roux is published by Seven Dials, priced £26. Photography by Cristian Barnett. Available now.
Sarah Raven’s Chestnut pavlova with caramelised apples
“The nuttiness of this chestnut meringue with the tartness of the Bramleys is wonderful,” says gardener and cook Sarah Raven.
Serves 8. Ingredients: For the meringue: 110g granulated sugar; 110g caster sugar; 4 egg whites; 1tsp cornflour; 1tsp vinegar. For the filling and topping: 300g cooked chestnuts, fresh or tinned;
275ml double cream; Splash of brandy; Caster sugar, to taste; 2 Bramley apples; 25g unsalted butter; Icing sugar for sifting.
Preheat a cool (160C/gas mark 3) oven. To make the meringue, mix the two sugars together. Whisk the egg whites until they are really stiff and continue whisking while you add three-quarters of the sugar, one tablespoon at a time. Make sure that the mixture regains its former stiffness and finally, carefully fold in the remaining sugar with a metal spoon. Add the cornflour and vinegar. Sparsely oil two circles of greaseproof paper (or use silicon mats) and divide the mixture between the two.
Cook in the preheated oven for about 45 minutes until the meringue is crisp and has turned coffee-coloured. Turn off the heat and allow the meringue to cool completely in the oven before removing from the baking sheet.
To make the filling, first purée 200 grams of the chestnuts in a food processor. Then whip the cream with a tot of brandy and sugar to taste, and carefully fold into the chestnut purée.
Peel and core the apples, and cut into thickish slices. Toss these in melted butter and a little sugar over a high heat until they begin to go brown, but remove them to a bowl before they become soft, and keep warm.
Add the remaining whole chestnuts to the pan in which you heated the apples and toss them until they are glazed with the sugar and butter mixture. Add to the apples.
Sandwich the two meringue layers together with the chestnut cream and a layer of caramelised apples and chestnuts, sift icing sugar over the top and serve with the rest of the apples and chestnuts.
Sarah Raven. Cranberry tart with hot toffee sauce
“An excellent Christmas pudding for eating at any time when you have lots of people to feed,” says Sarah Raven.
Serves 6. Ingredients: 500g cranberries, fresh or frozen; Juice and grated zest of 1 orange; 200g caster sugar; 150g shelled pecan nuts; 1 egg, beaten well; 60g plain flour, sifted; 75g butter, melted; Crème fraîche, to serve. For the toffee sauce: 180g dark brown sugar; 120g butter; 120ml double cream.
Preheat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4. Grease a 20cm-diameter springform cake tin.
Put the cranberries in a non-stick pan with the orange juice and zest and mix well in the tin. Cook them for about three to four minutes, until the cranberries pop.
Put the just-cooked cranberries into the prepared cake tin. Sprinkle with half the sugar and the pecans, and mix well.
In a bowl, beat the remaining sugar with the egg and mix very well (for four to five minutes) until the mixture pales and leaves a trail as you whisk. Add the flour and melted butter to make a smooth batter. Pour this over the cranberries in the tin and bake for 40-45 minutes.
To make the toffee sauce, heat the sugar, butter and cream together until the sugar has dissolved and the sauce is bubbling. Take off the heat and serve warm. This makes generous quantities of sauce, and you may have some left over for ice cream the following day. Serve the tart warm with the hot toffee sauce and crème fraîche.
■ Sarah Raven’s Garden Cookbook by Sarah Raven is published by Bloomsbury, priced £35. Photography by Jonathan Buckley. Available now.