Cookie Log, Vanilla & Valrhona Chocolate

For those of you who follow me on Instagram, you saw a few weeks ago that I was invited to Valrhona for a very special day with other Instagrammers/bloggers (David from Caramel Beurre Sucré, Rachel from Happy Pastille, Céline from Les Yeux Grognons, Maxime from Empreinte Sucrée, Ibrahim from le Gourmand & Justine from JustinCooking). For one day, we had the chance to each prepare a Christmas log with Frédéric Bau, and for the occasion, I revisited a log recipe that I made last year with quite a few modifications. The goal was to have a delightful log (of course!), light, and chocolaty; these last two adjectives do not always go together, so I chose not to make a chocolate mousse but a light vanilla mousse containing a dark chocolate cream and a chocolate ganache, all laid on a hazelnut praline crunch and a milk chocolate & walnut cookie... quite the program! Therefore, there are quite a few steps to plan, but all are fairly simple, and the preparation can be spread over several days according to your organization. Finally, I made a simple and quick decoration, but you can always replace it with the glaze of your choice. Get your log molds ready!

Preparation time: 2h + chilling time
Difficulty: average

For a 25cm log:

Chocolate Cream Insert:

60g whole milk
60g heavy cream
24g egg yolks
9g granulated sugar
1.5g gelatin sheets
45g caraïbes dark chocolate or a chocolate with 65/70% cocoa

Place the gelatin in a large bowl of cold water to rehydrate.
Prepare a custard: bring the milk and cream to a boil. Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar.

Then pour the boiling liquid over the eggs while whisking well, then pour everything back into a saucepan. Cook the cream until it reaches 84°C, stirring constantly, then remove from heat.

Add the rehydrated and drained gelatin, then the melted chocolate, and blend the cream with an immersion blender.

Then pour into the insert mold and place in the freezer.

Praliné Biskelia Ganache Insert:

48g heavy cream
60g praline
60g biskelia
12g honey
18g butter

Melt the praline with the chocolate.

Add the hot cream to make a ganache, then the honey. When the ganache reaches 36°C, add the butter cut into small pieces. Let the ganache cool to room temperature.

Chocolate & Walnut Cookie:

80g butter
37g muscovado sugar
35g sugar
35g egg
0.8g baking powder
43g T45 flour
73g T55 flour
5g cornstarch
0.8g salt
73g chopped walnuts
90g bahibé or another chocolate with at least 40% cocoa

Whip the butter with the sugars. Then add the eggs, whisking quickly to incorporate them.

In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients: the flours, cornstarch, salt, and baking powder.
Add the powders to the butter-sugar-egg mixture, whisk until you have a homogeneous dough (but not longer). Incorporate the chopped walnuts, still with the electric whisk, then the chocolate chips. If necessary, stir again with a spatula to ensure the chocolate and walnuts are well distributed.

Preheat the oven to 210°C in static heat with the rack at the bottom of the oven.
Spread the cookie dough into a rectangle 1cm thick (it should be a little larger than the base of the log mold) and bake for 8 to 10 minutes, then let it cool on its tray.

Praline Crunch:

55g hazelnut praline
35g bahibé or 40% milk chocolate
45g crushed lace crepes

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler, then add the praline and crushed lace crepes.

Cut the cooled cookie into a rectangle slightly smaller than the log mold (if your mold is 25cm long by 8cm wide, cut it into a 24x7 rectangle).
Spread the crunch on the cooled cookie and cut to size, then crystallize in the freezer.

When crystallized, spread the praliné biskelia ganache on the crunch (it should be about 1cm thick) and place back in the freezer until final assembly.

Vanilla Mousse:

2.7g gelatin
68g whole milk
14g mascarpone
1 vanilla bean
14g granulated sugar (1)
23g egg yolks
8g granulated sugar (2)
300g heavy cream

Start by preparing the custard: place the gelatin in a bowl of very cold water.
Bring to a boil the milk, heavy cream, scraped vanilla bean, liquid vanilla, and sugar (1).
Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar (2). Pour half the boiling milk over it, whisking well, then pour everything back into the saucepan. Cook over low heat until reaching a temperature of 85°C. Add the rehydrated and drained gelatin, then let the cream cool.

Whip the very cold liquid cream until you obtain a not too firm whipped cream.
When the custard is at 26°C, add a small portion of the whipped cream and incorporate it by mixing vigorously. Then gently add the rest of the whipped cream, being careful not to deflate the mixture.

Assembly:

Pour half of the vanilla mousse into the mold, and let it rise to line all the walls of the mold.

Then place the chocolate insert.

Cover and level with the remaining vanilla mousse, and close with the cookie/crunch/ganache. Place in the freezer for a few hours.

Glazing and Finishing:

60g white chocolate + 15g grape seed oil + 5g cocoa butter (optional)
60g bahibé chocolate + 10g grape seed oil +5g cocoa butter
60g caraïbes chocolate + 10g grape seed oil + 5g cocoa butter

If you do not use the indicated chocolates, the quantities of oil may need adjusting; you need to obtain a very fluid chocolate so that it can be spread with a brush in a very thin layer on the log.

Melt each of the chocolates separately, then add the oil and cocoa butter.

Unmold your log and spread a thin layer of white chocolate covering with a brush on top. Then alternate layers of milk covering and dark covering with a brush, to achieve a wood log effect.
Leave the log to thaw in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours before enjoying!