30 December 2008

Bouche de noel


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:

Sue said...

Poor you! It sounds way too complicated! But I bet it was really, really good. It looks it.

Happy New Year!

Arlene Delloro said...

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!

Christine said...

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?

Gretchen Noelle said...

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!

Julie said...

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!

glamah16 said...

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.