I haven't really baked at Christmas for a number of years - between moving to Virginia without Sophia, and then moving back to Washington without my baking supplies, and now having Vic and Sophia come for Christmas so close to the actual holiday and my working full-time, baking has taken a back seat on the holiday planning schedule. It doesn't help that we have several amazing bakeries in our area and I have turned to them for cookies and goodies.
If I was going to bake something extra-special for Christmas, it would be a Bûche de Noël (Yule Log). What's not to love about a dark, decadent cake rolled around chocolate buttercream or some other creamy confection, slathered with chocolate ganche, and then dragging your fork through the ganache to simulate the bark of a tree. Add some festive decorations, meringue mushrooms perhaps, and voila! a masterpiece. I can think of at least five things that can go wrong, dreadfully wrong, in the description above, but I've always wanted to try one and perhaps next year I will.
Sophia and I certainly were drooling over this one at our favorite French bakery in Seattle this weekend, Le Panier. This one is slightly elevated in its presentation with those tiny macarons on top. Magnifique!
Yummy! We stumbled upon Le Panier earlier this year after an afternoon at the Seattle Symphony. We were very happy with the delightful baked goods we purchased. Glad to know someone else found it. *Found your blog through Blogmas 2019. It is always fun to find other Seattle-area bloggers.
ReplyDeleteOh yum! Looks especially delicious. I've never attempted one of these either.
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