Daring Bakers- A Bûche de Noël (French Yule Log)

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 could very well be my favorite DB challenge yet! As with most DB challenges, the initial scan of the recipe seemed a wee bit daunting, and after a couple of hours of hiding in the corner shivering in the fetal position, screaming "Help me oh great spirit of Betty Crocker!", I buckled down and got to work. The recipe had six different elements that formed together to make complete culinary BLISS! If you'd like to see the complete recipe please visit Hilda here.

I chose to make my log with the following elements: Coconut Almond Dacquoise, Milk Chocolate Whipped Cream (Chantilly), Dark Chocolate Ganache, Coconut Crisp, Vanilla Almond Crème Brulée, and Dark Chocolate Icing. Yes, it was like a giant, frozen, creamy, Almond Joy candy bar and it ROCKED!

As what happens once or twice a month, my mom calls to inform me that she has a big to-do with one of her social groups (this time it was simply her church diner), and she "just doesn't know what on earth she's going to make, or when she's going to find the time to make it", yadda yadda yadda. These are the moments when my mother goes into full on guilt trip mode like only a true Jewish mother knows how to do. I'm always amazed at how effortlessly she can pull you into an all agreeable trance where you'll agree to rebuild the Eiffel Tower if need be. My boys inform me that I too have this skill, yet compared to my mom, I'm merely an amature with much to learn. Anyhoo, I decided I'd make this for her to take and it was a huge hit!

The only part that caused me grief was the icing. I'm not real sure what I did to it, but I never could get it to thicken up so, I just poured it over top like a glaze. After being in the freezer for a day it transformed into some funky jelly type shield that seemed a bit like plastic on the tongue. Deeeeelicious! Seriously, after peeling off the chocolate vinyl layer it was pure heaven that would make your tummy do a happy jig. I do plan on making this again and again until I conquer that icing. And as God as my witness, I'll never eat chocolate vinyl again!


Edited to fix date error.