Yule Log 2017: All About Candy

After last year’s sadly unadorned log, my plan for this year to redeem myself was to make all sorts of delicious woodsy confections for a truly extravagant Yule Log! And I wanted to use toffee, one of my favorite treats.

I planned to make a chocolate log atop a base of pistachio toffee brittle, adorned with chocolate molded pinecones (filled with Nutella), dark chocolate truffle “truffles,” and shards of sponge toffee to resemble bits of bark. I’d also planned on chocolate-covered pretzel twigs and tiny truffle-and-pretzel mushrooms, but they fell by the wayside as my plan revealed itself to be a little overly ambitious….

Just to count, there were five different types of candies I planned – brittle, sponge toffee, molded chocolates, truffles, and chocolate pretzels. In addition to a cake!

The log itself was a chocolate cake roll filled with mascarpone cream. I had a bit of trouble getting a good swirl on the cake roll itself (slightly overbaked, I suspect), but look at that pistachio brittle base! Just like a forest floor. :)

I made a sponge toffee using Nigella Lawson’s recipe for Hokey Pokey, which is what they call sponge toffee in England. Some of it was broken into bark-shaped shards. Some of it was pulverized, so I could roll dark chocolate ganache truffles in the toffee dust.

The pinecones were made with a plastic mold. I filled the pinecone halves with Nutella and glued them together with a little melted chocolate. I also dusted them with an edible copper-hued lustre dust, which was more subtle than I expected.

I had to skip the mushrooms and twigs as I am but one person who overzealously planned way too much, so I am saving those ideas for another year.

Sitting on candy, covered with candies!

The brittle base was extremely good, as were the pinecones. I love the sponge toffee as shards, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as a coating for the truffles. They were a bit chunky and indelicate, which is not what a truffle should be! In hindsight, it would have been better to roll them in something white, like finely chopped almonds or fine coconut shavings, so they looked more like real truffles you’d find on a forest floor (the fungi ones).

All in all, the overall result was fancy and quite decadent! We also had truffles, brittle, and toffee left over for weeks, which was a nice bonus. ;)