The story of the Christmas Log

A tasty story

The Christmas log has a beautiful story! Many, many years ago, a couple of thousands in number, on almost the entire contents of today’s Europe, around the winter solstice, the transition to a new year was celebrated. The people of the time used to put in the stove a log, which would burn smoldering for 12 days, symbolizing the 12 months of the year. Usually, a fruit tree trunk was chosen to guarantee a rich harvest in the following year.

After the advent of Christianity this custom was taken over in almost all countries, especially since the celebration of Christmas overlapped with the older feast of the winter solstice. In the era of Christianity, on the eve of the eve, the log was lit, which was blessed with a remnant of laurel, willow or a twig of a flowering fruit tree. This custom was kept in the house at the Annunciation. In other countries, the Christmas log is drizzled with wine, so that the family can enjoy abundant harvests in the coming year.

Reminiscent of older beliefs, perpetuates the custom of throwing a handful of salt over the Christmas log that burns in the fireplace, so that everyone in the house is protected from the wizards. Starting from these traditions with a pre-Christian root, perpetuated in Christianity since the beginning of the XX century, it has become a custom for a special dessert to be served at the Festive Dinners for Christmas and New Year’s Eve. This dessert is the “stump” or “Christmas log”.

The exact date of the appearance of the dessert is not known. According to some writings the recipe would be that of a master pastry chef who worked in Paris before the War. Others say that the recipe would be much older, the master Auguste Escoffier himself discovered it in 1912. The recipe of the Christmas log is made on the basis of butter, with aromas of vanilla, praline, coffee and orangeliqueur . Glasat or not, the Christmas log is obligatorily decorated with symbols made of sugar or chocolate such as: Santa Claus, goblins, mushrooms, axes, saws, etc.

The recipe of the Christmas log

Ingredients for the countertop:100 g sugar, 100 g flour, 5 eggs, a pack of vanilla sugar,

Ingredients for the cream:100 g cubic sugar, half a cup of liquid coffee, 3 yolks, 250 g butter, 100 g dark chocolate (70% cocoa), 2 ml coffeeextract.

Preparation: being a more difficult dessert to achieve, we need about two hours to make it. For the countertop we mix 4 yolks with the sugar and vanilla. We homogenize well and add little by little, the flour, then the beaten egg whites foam. We put baking paper in a square tray, grease it with butter and stretch the dough, leveling it. We give the dough in the oven for 6-7 minutes at the temperature of 200 degrees Celsius. We then remove the countertop, turn it on a cold surface with all the paper and cover it with a towel.

For the cream, we melt the sugar over low heat, until we get a thin syrup. We pour the warm syrup over the yolks, stirring continuously, until the composition cools. We add the hardened butter and stir until we obtain a homogeneous cream. We divide the preparation in two: one part we flavor it with coffee, and the other, with melted chocolate to which we add a little water. Now we can mount the “Christmas log”.

We remove the paper from above the countertop, spread with coffee cream and roll the countertop along it. We wrap the countertop with chocolate cream, after which with the help of a fork we draw lines that will imitate the bark of a tree. We then decorate the “Christmas log” each after inspiration with: mushrooms, snowmen, leaves, etc. We can make these figurines ourselves from sugar paste or almond paste that we paint with food colorings. We put the cold preparation for the festive Christmas table. Children will be delighted!