This month's challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux. They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand.
This recipe had so many components and steps I'm not quite sure where to start. I made it a few weeks ago the night before my last paper was due. I started the bouche de noel and the editing at around 7pm and wrapped up at 12:30am...but had about another 45 minutes of prep on the cake in the morning before I headed to school to turn in the paper.
Wow... this post sounds really boring. I think it's because I don't really have much good to say about this month's challenge. I normally don't mind when a Daring Bakers' challenge takes forever as I feel like I am learning along the way. This time though, I think something got lost in the translation/conversion of the recipe from French and Metric into English and Customary. I was confused about pretty much everything, how long to cook each component, what consistency it should be and don't even get me started on using gelatin (suffice to say - never again). Luckily the bouche came out pretty well in the end (despite a disastrous creme brulee layer that wouldn't set at all) . Everyone enjoyed it but I think it's safe to say... I'll never make it again.
I hate to be so negative, espcially when I know how much work everyone put into this so thinking my hardest, I've come up with a few things I've learned from this recipe:
1) Gelatin is disgusting and I feel completely vindicated in my refusal to eat or use it for the past 12 years. Next time I'll use a vegetarian alternative.
2) If caffeine after 5pm keeps you up at night, eating a mocha bouche de noel at 10:30pm is not a good idea.
3) I am really spoiled as so many blogs, recipes and cookbooks are in my native language and units of measure. I have a newfound respect for those of you who translate languages and measures to work on Daring Baker's challenges or other recipes.
6 comments:
Poor you! It sounds way too complicated! But I bet it was really, really good. It looks it.
Happy New Year!
I'm so glad I didn't make this. I hate overly-fussy desserts as much as entrees with a gazillion ingredients. I couldn't justify the expense in time and ingredients for something no one in the house would eat. How did you ever fit it in with end terms and such!
I also struggled with the translated recipe. It was difficult being told to use ingredients that we just don't have here.
But your log looks great! Did you like the taste?
A mocha yule log sounds delicious! Sorry the gelatin and you did not get along and that things were a bit confusing. Happy New Year!
My creme brulee didn't want to set either... I kept increasing the temperature and tacking on a few more minutes, and in the end I think I overcooked it a little, but once frozen you couldn't tell the difference. I'm impressed you stuck it out, especially while writing a big paper!
This challenge lost me at the begining. I thought the instructions to convuluted. And I didnt have time anyway with the travel. But good for you attempting this. Maybe one day I will tackle it.
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