Argentine Yule Log

A cross-section of the Yule log

Dear readers,

Happy New Year! I apologise for posting this after Christmas, however, I know that there are a few people who celebrate Christmas later than others, for one reason or another. Also, my friends and I like to share a "Fake Christmas" some time early in the New Year. Therefore, this recipe may still be useful at this time of year!

When I was in Argentina, I really wanted to share something English at Christmas, and combine both the English and Argentine cultures in one dessert.

The outside of the Yule log

The idea came into my head... why not make a chocolate Yule log, but use dulce de leche as the filling in order to make it Argentine?!

So, my boyfriend and I went ahead and baked a Yule log. We really struggled to find cocoa in the shops of Buenos Aires, and so decided to keep the sponge coffee flavoured. This worked well because the sickly-sweet dulce de leche was "calmed down" (slightly) by the bitterness of the coffee. We also added coffee to the icing to make it truly mocha.

We used a standard Yule log recipe but substituted the cocoa in the sponge for some instant coffee, and used the filling of dulce de leche and a mocha butter icing. We didn't have the best cooking tray for the sponge so it ended up slightly squidgy and slightly burnt, too. Fortunately, although it sank a little, the dulce de leche covered up any burnt flavours and we didn't receive any complaints!

Dulce de leche oozing out of a slice of the Yule log

We served this at the big dinner on Christmas Eve (Christmas is mainly celebrated on Christmas Eve in Argentina) and it was a great success! It was so well received that the family demanded more for the larger celebrations for New Year. We decided to create a double-sized Yule log (AKA a Yule tree) for the New Year Celebrations. I hope you all enjoyed the holidays!

Peppermint Bark - a little late!

Yes, Christmas is behind us now. However, I bought the ingredients to make peppermint bark in California before I flew back to England for Christmas and, unfortunately, amongst my birthday and end of quarter celebrations, I did not find any time to make it!

So now I am back in California for winter quarter, and lo and behold, the ingredients were still in the cupboard. I finally found some time to make it, with the few remaining candy canes, so here it is!

This peppermint bark is made from a layer of dark chocolate followed by a layer of white chocolate laced with peppermint oil, topped with a little swirl of red food colouring and a generous helping of crushed candy canes.

My father bought me lots of interesting bars of chocolate as part of my Christmas present (along with my new macro lens, thank you Daddy!) yet none of these chocolate bars included peppermint - a flavour I am rather fond of. I have been nibbling at these random chocolate bars every day with my cup of Earl Grey - salted hazelnut milk chocolate, dark chocolate with pink peppercorns and my personal favourite; Montezuma's orange and geranium dark chocolate (so in love with the taste of flowers!). Now I have another chocolate to add to the collection - some beautiful peppermint bark!

I guess you could say that this recipe isn't late and is actually a way of using up any leftover Christmas confectionary! I'm sure you could add any type of chocolate or candy to it, or make a completely different type of bark with whatever you have leftover. The only remaining confectionary I had from Christmas, however, were the candy canes and some very unpleasant chocolates from my $1 advent calendar, and I was most certainly not going to include those!

A Merry Christmas in Woking

I hope all my fellow friends, family and food bloggers had a wonderful Christmas filled with a stupendous amount of exquisite food and tipple!

This year my father went that little bit further with his lobster and king prawn cocktail; dusting it with cayenne pepper, dill, sesame seeds, rocket, beetroot and a drizzle of lime juice. Perfect with a glass of Champagne!

My father also creatively designed some Cognac and Coca Cola jellies to accompany our flaming Christmas pud. They were the most incredible-tasting jellies I have ever eaten! The Coca Cola was added for fizz, however, the fizz did not really set with the jelly. Instead, the flavour of the Coca Cola went overwhelmingly well with the Cognac, well done Daddy!

And here is one of our flaming pud! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

P.S. Someone let the cat in!