Chocolate Yule Log with Brandy Crème Fraîche

In case you did not know, I do take reader requests, so if you’re stuck for a festive Christmas Eve dessert, I’m sharing my go-to recipe for a classic chocolate yule log today, as a couple of you have asked me this year how I make mine. It is really easy to do (though it includes a bit more kitchen equipment and a few more bowls than my recipes usually go for), looks really impressive, and is usually a hit all round. It’s adapted from my Christmas bible, Nigella Lawson’s Feast, because her swiss roll sponge can’t be improved on, but I’ve gone for a lighter, creamier filling, a little less chocolate in the frosting (I know, trust me!) and the obvious adult addition of brandy (but you can equally leave it out if you don’t want to give it to young children, too.)

As with most of the recipes I make every single Christmas, there is a memory attached. I started making it the year I read Feast cover to cover one rainy afternoon, but before that I have one clear memory of making a chocolate log. When I was little, probably every year up until the year before my grandmother died, my grandparents used to spend Christmas with us. This came with its own traditions, like my grandfather taking forever to open his presents carefully with a pen knife to preserve the paper (he grew up during the war), and my having to pretend to be asleep when my grandmother was giggling really loudly while she helped my mother fill my Christmas stocking in the dark hallway outside my bedroom.

While some things were the same every Christmas with them, there are some memories that stand out as one offs, and that was the time I complained to Mummy and Ma-ma that we never made a chocolate yule log. So, they found a recipe (I don’t know where it was from, I’d hazard a guess at Mary Berry or Delia Smith), and the three of us spent the afternoon making the only yule log I can remember making en-famille. There was much concern about if the sponge would crack, and all hands on deck to make sure we got a nice swirl. And I know I was the one to draw all of the lines in it with a cocktail stick (though I’ve now graduated to Nigella’s tip that one of those little holders you stick into the end of the corn on a cob makes the best tree bark effect), and to dust it with icing sugar. While I baked as a child with my Mum more times than I can count, and I remember being in our kitchen with Ma-ma when she taught me how to make her family’s take on a lockshen pudding, the yule log is the only memory I have of all three of us baking together.

The log will serve about 8-10 people, and I’d not keep it more than a day after you’ve filled it (keep it in the fridge when you’re not bringing it up to room temperature to serve) because of the creme fraîche. Speaking of the creme fraîche, you want a really, thick, good quality one here. I use Crème d’Isigny, from a special designated region of France which I either pick up in identical glass jars from Waitrose or the French supermarket when I’m over there, but if you live in London, shop what you’re doing, don’t pass go and don’t collect £200: head straight to Neal’s Yard Dairy because they make the very best creme fraîche I’ve ever tasted.

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