La Birch de Noël

This title would probably have sang better to our ears a week ago. Today is the first of 2006 and if you're like me, you crave a green papaya salad and light broths rather than a white chocolate mousse cake with seven minutes frosting.

I discovered this recipe for ''Birch'' de Noël (it looks like a birch log thanks to the white frosting and the coconut shavings) on a 2001 issue of Martha Stewart Living Magazine. I made it that year and ever since it became a staple of our holiday's tables, tweaking it a little more each year.

I skip all the trimmings detailed as part of the original recipe though. The sugar frosted rosemary branches while cute are not really edible and I find the Birch to be just perfect with its meringue mushrooms for a stunning presentation. And the confectionar sugar coated chocolate truffles were just over the top too in my opinion. They stayed almost untouched on the serving plate the first year, the birch itself having the preference of my guests. But if you feel like it and have time, you can brush few rosemary sprigs with egg whites then roll them in crystalised sugar and make your favorite chocolate truffles, roll them in icing sugar and scatter them around the Birch.

I'd like to consign the recipe here eventhough we rather move on to lighter fares after the food frenzy of December, since this bûche is always such a big success at the holidays parties we attend each year. I made it so many times these recent years, I know now the lengthy recipe and the numerous steps by heart.

One disapointement though this year with this bûche recipe. It calls for fresh coconut and the ones I bought were so bland, almost tasteless, all with a ''ghost'' of coconut taste. I don't know why it was so. I noticed it as soon as my husband and I cracked them open. The deliciously fresh and sweet exotic smell didn't exhude from the white flesh. It made a big difference in the taste of the 5 bûches I made this year, each of them with its own coconut.

Only the people who knew the bûche from our earlier years holiday gathering noticed the lack of coconutty taste. The bûche still recieved rave reviews from friends who discovered it this year. Fortunately there's more to this bûche than the coconut. The airy white chocolate mousse against the cocoa génoise and the light frosting still produced a delicious holiday dessert.

It's a time consuming recipe, so I prefer to spread its making in 3 days, as follows.

Up to one week in advance: Make the meringue mushrooms
2 days before serving: Make the chocolate mousse
1 day before serving: Make the génoise and form the log
Few hours before serving: Make the frosting, assemble the Birch on its serving platter. Refrigerate until serving.

La Birch de Noël

Make the White Chocolate Mousse

2 teaspoons unflavored gelatin
1/4 cup (60 ml - 6 cl) cold water
12 oz (336 g) good quality white chocolate, chopped
1 cup + 1.5 cups (625 ml) heavy cream

Sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water and allow to hydrate for 10 minutes.

On a barely simmering double boiler (bain-marie) melt the white chocolate with 1 cup of heavy cream. Be carefull not to overheat. White chocolate have a very low melting point and too much heat will produce a stiff mass rather than a creamy one.

When all the chocolate is melted, add the hydrated gelatin and stir to incorporate well.

Refrigerate until the mixture thickens (but is not set yet), stirring it from time to time (it takes around 20 minutes for my chocolate mixture to thicken).

With an electric mixer, beat the remaining 1.5 cups cream into a soft whipped cream.

Stir the thickened white chocolate/gelatin mix in the whipped cream. Set aside covered with plastic wrap in the refrigerator while you prepare the cocoa génoise.

Make the Cocoa Génoise

1 fresh coconut
6 large eggs, whites and yolks separated
1/2 a cup (125 ml - 12.5 cl) + 1/4 cup (60 ml - 6 cl) sugar
1/4 cup (60 ml - 6 cl) cocoa powder
1/4 cup (60 l - 6 cl) all purpose flour
2 tablespoons flavouring of choice (vanilla or rum or coconut extract)

Pre-heat the oven to 350º F (180º C).

Wrap the coconut in a clean kitchen towel, then in aluminium foil. Put in the pre-heated oven for 20 to 25 minutes (depending of the coconut size).

Remove from oven and unwrap. I use an electric drill to pierce 2 whole in 2 of the 3 ''eyes'' on one end of the coconut. Drain the juice in a bowl and reserve for an other use (I strain it and use it in mango shakes or in a chicken curry later).

With a hammer, breack the coconut in rather large pieces. The white flesh should separate from the the hard husk with little help.


Peel the brown skin from the white flesh. Finely grate enough flesh to obtain 1/2 a cup (125 ml - 12.5 cl). Set aside for the Birch later flavoring.

With a vegetable peeler, make shavings. Lower the oven temperature to 250º F (120º C). Lay the coconut shavings on a baking sheet and bake for about 20 minutes. The shavings should dry and remain white. Do not allow to brown. Remove from oven and set aside for the Birch later decorating.



Set the oven heat to 400º F (205º C). Line a 12x17 inches (approximately 30x43 cm) jelly roll pan with buttered baking paper.

Beat the egg whites with an electric whisk on medium speed until soft peaks forms, then on high speed, adding slowly 1/2 a cup sugar, until firm peak form.

In a different bowl (I don't bother to wash the whisks) beat the egg yolks with the remaining 1/4 cup sugar on high speed until they become pale yellow and almost double in size. I find it important to really pay attention to this step and whip the yolks until they they loose several shades of colour and become fluffy and airy. I find it really makes a difference in the quality of the génoise.

On the following two pictures, you will notice the striking difference in colour ''before'' and ''after''.

Sift together the flour and cocoa powder twice.

Incorporate delicately the egg whites to the egg yolks (circular movements from bottom of the bowl to top, cutting with the spatula in the middle of the mass to the bottom of the bowl, going back again, always in circular movements to the top).

Sift half of the flour/cocoa mixture on the eggs mixture. Incorporate delicately using the same movement so not to break up the génoise mousse. When first half of cocoa/flour incorporated, sift and incorporate the second half.

Pour the batter on the prepared pan and spread evenly on all the surface. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the génoise spings back when pressed lightly with a finger.

Lay a clean kitchen towel on a work surface and line it with a sheet of baking paper. Unmold the génoise on the baking paper. Leave on the baking paper you used to line the mold stuck on the génoise. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and allow to cool to room temperature.

Form the roulade

When the génoise sheet is cooled, remove the kitchen towel and baking paper on top of the génoise.

Brush the entire surface of the génoise with your prefered flavouring (I usually use a mix of coconut and vanilla extracts, but the original recipe calls for rum).

Spread a thick layer of white chocolate mousse on top, leaving a 1 inch (2.5 cm) bare at one short end.

On top of the chocolate mousse layer, sprinkle the reserved finely grated coconut flesh.

Roll, gelly roll fashion, using the bottom baking paper to help you lift the génoise over its chocolate mousse filling.

Enclose the rolled génoise in the baking paper and the kitchen towel, fold them on top and attach with cloth pins or binder clips. Put in freezer until ready to frost, few hours before serving.

I made the Birch up to this point and kept it frozen for 2 weeks before frosting and serving without a problem several times. On the day I planned to serve it, I removed it from the freezer in the morning and put it in the refrigerator until ready to frost it in the middle of the afternoon. I put it back in the fridge unitl I served it for dessert later in the evening. It was perfect to have only the frosting and presentation to make on the party-day.

Make the meringue mushrooms

I always make the meringue mushrooms 4 or 5 days prior the day I serve the Birch. They keep well in a tin box. The trick is to hide the box well. Those little mushrooms are irresistible nibbles to my kids and despite the fact I always double the recipe so I give my boys the opportunity to eat their own meringues mushrooms (in vain hope they'll let the ones intended for the birch decoration alone) I once discovered they left only 2 of them in the tin box. I was so angry, I ate them! (errr... the mushrooms, not the kids.) Why bother decorating the birch with only 2 lonely meringue mushrooms?

Sometimes, I make the meringue mushrooms whithout the Birch and I package them in a big cellophane bag. They make a delicious and very pretty hostess gift, particularly nice for an afternoon (kid-less) chat with espresso.

To Make the Swiss Meringue
4 large egg whites
1 cup (250 ml - 25 cl) sugar
Pinch of cream of tartar (or few drops lemon juice)
1/2 a teaspoon vanilla extract

To Assemble the Mushrooms
3 oz (85 g) dark chocolate, chopped with a serrated knive.
3 oz (85 g) white chocolate, chopped with a serrated knive.

Pre-heat oven to 175º F (80º C). Line two large baking sheets with baking paper or silpat and set aside. Fit a large pastry bag with a large plain tip (Ateco #1 plain round tip).

Fill a medium saucepan one quarter full of water and bring to a gentle simmer.

In a (preferably metal) bowl mix together the egg whites, the sugar and the cream of tartar (or lemon juice.)

Set the bowl over the very gently simmering water (bain-marie). Mix gently with a whisk (you don't want to whip the whites firm yet) until the sugar is totally dissolved. To check, drop a little of the mixture on your hand and rub it with a finger. The sugar is dissolved when you can't feel the crystals rolling under your finger.

When the sugar is totally dissolved, remove the bowl from the top of the saucepan. Switch to an electric hand held mixer and whisk on low speed for 5 minutes, then medium speed for 5 additional minutes, then on high speed until the mixture is cool to the touch (verify by touching the meringue itself, not the bowl which stays warm longer than the meringue.)

Add the vanilla extract and whip in until totally incorported.

Fill the pastry bag with the meringue and pipe an equal number of mushroom caps (just pressing out the meringue in a 1 inch/2 cm disks) and mushroom feet (press while lifting up the pastry bag to form a peak) on the lined baking sheets.

Bake in preheated oven, one baking sheet at a time for up to 2.5 hour. Actually, you shouldn't allow the meringue to brown, but it must be dried inside and out, and lift easily without sticking from the baking paper. The other baking sheet can wait without any problem for up to 8 hours at room temperature.

Assemble the Meringue Mushrooms

When the meringue is all cooked and cooled, temper the dark chocolate in a small bowl. I use a little ramequin and temper by 15 seconds increments in the micro-wave, until only small chunks remain. I then stir until the heat of the melted chocolate melts the remaining little chunks.

Spread a thin layer of dark chocolate on the flat side of the mushrooms' caps. Allow to harden, chocolate side-up of course.

By the time you spread dark chocolate to your last caps, the chocolate on the first caps you did is hardened. With a little pointy knive, make a whole in the middle of the flat side (these will be filled later with melted white chocolate and the mushroom feet will be stuk in them.)

Temper (carefully and gently so not to over heat and so it stays fluid and manageable) the white chocolate in a small ramequin in the same fashion as the dark chocolate.

Fill the little whole you made on the flat side of a cap with melted white chocolate. Spread a thin layer of white chocolate all over the flat side. With your little pointy knive (or a toothpick), draw lines to mimick the mushrooms fans.

Stick the mushroom foot, pointy end in the white chocolate filled whole. Put the mushroom, foot up on a tray to allow the white chocolate to harden. Repeat with all remaining meringue mushrooms. And voilà, you're done with the mushrooms. Now you can finish the Birch presentation by icing and decorating it.

Make the 7 Minutes Frosting

3/4 cup (200 ml - 20 cl) sugar + 1 tablespoon (15 ml - 1.5 cl)
1 teaspoon light corn syrup (alternatively use 1 teaspoon Lyle's Golden Syrup or thick cane sugar syrup)
1/3 cup (80 ml - 8 cl) water
3 large egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Prepare your egg whites in a bowl and whisk with an electric mixer or using the kitchnenaid with the wire attachement, which is the best solution in this case. You should whisk, adding little by little the tablespoon sugar, until they form soft peaks, about 2 minutes.

Make a syrup by bringing to a boil 3/4 cup sugar, the water and the corn syrup. Bring to a 235° F (112° C) temperature. You will need a candy thermometer to check you reached the right temperature.

While whisking at high speed (this is why it helps you use a stand-up mixer) pour the hot syrup very slowly in a continuous thin thread into the whipped egg whites.

Continue to whisk on high speed after all the syrup has been poured and until the frosting is cool to the touch (check by touching the actual frosting, not the bowl) and the mixture is firm and shiny, about 7 minutes, hence the name.

Add the vanilla extract and whip on high speed until fully incorporated. The frosting should be used immediately on the birch.

Remove the birch from the freezer or refrigerator. Cover the serving plate edges with narrow sheets of baking paper meeting in the middle of the plate so the birch sits on the paper but you can remove the paper easily from underneath the Birch simply by pulling away the paper without moving or disturbing the birch.

Trim both ends of the birch from ragged génoise. Cut a 1 inch (2.5 cm) slice from one end and sit it on top of the birch as if it was a cut-off branch.

Frost the Birch. Decorate with the reserved coconut shavings so it looks like a birch log (as if you didn't understood that already - rolling eyes at myself -), remove the baking paper which protected your serving plate from frosting smears. Scatter the meringue mushrooms around and on top of the Birch.

Voilà ! Ready to serve when you're ready to serve... It can be refrigerated up to 6 hours before serving. Beware of savory smelling stuff in the fridge, the Birch will pick them up!

Meilleurs Voeux Pour 2006 !