Cinnamon & chocolate Christmas log

You seemed to like the cake version, so I declined my idea of a cake "like a hot chocolate" in a Christmas log ! The same cinnamon and chocolate caramel insert is found in the heart of a marbling of cinnamon mousse and chocolate mousse, all placed on a soft cocoa biscuit joconde. If you like the association chocolate & cinnamon, I can only recommend this recipe, you'll love it ! It is well balanced and light and even I, who am not a great lover of chocolate mousse cakes, really appreciated it thanks to the presence of cinnamon and the freshness of the whipped cream in decoration.
I would like to take this opportunity to tell you that I was contacted a few weeks ago by the brand Haviland, who offered to give me a few pieces of crockery for my Christmas photos. So I created 6 Christmas recipes around some of their collections, and this one is the first one with the Val de Loire collection.



I used de Buyer's molds, I put the links below :
- Cake mold
- Insert cake mold
To make demolding easier, I use this.

Prep time : 1h30 + freezind ans defrosting time
For a 30cm cake :

Cinnamon caramel insert :

100g sugar
2 egg yolks
120g liquid cream
30g butter
100g milk chocolate
A pinch of cinnamon
A pinch of salt

Prepare a caramel with the sugar, and heat the liquid cream with the cinnamon.





Pour the cream over the caramel, stirring well.



Remove from the heat, allow to cool for a few minutes, then pour over the yolks while whisking. Pour back into a saucepan and cook like a custard at 85°C.



Off the heat, add the butter, the pinch of salt and the milk chocolate, and if necessary mix to perfect the emulsion.





Pour into insert mold and place in freezer until set.

Cocoa biscuit joconde :

100g eggs
80g powdered sugar
80g almond powder
16g butter
10g flour
10g cocoa powder
100g egg whites
32g caster sugar

Melt the butter and let it cool.
Prepare a French meringue: beat the egg whites. When they start to foam, add 1/3 of the caster sugar, whisking slowly. When the sugar is incorporated, add the second third and then the third. At the end, increase the speed of the whisk so as to obtain a nice smooth and shiny meringue.



Whip the eggs with the powdered sugar until the mixture is well blanched and swollen to form a ribbon.



Then add the almond powder.



Then incorporate the French meringue, then the sifted flour and cocoa.





Finally add the melted butter (to prevent the mixture from falling back, I take a small part of it and mix it with the butter before adding it to the dough), then pour on a baking sheet covered with baking paper to a thickness of about 1cm.




Bake for 8 to 10 minutes at 200°C.
When the biscuit joconde comes out of the oven, reserve it on a rack. Then cut two rectangles, one of 28x8cm and one of 28x5cm.

Cinnamon mousse :

2g gelatin
51g whole milk
15g mascarpone
2 teaspoons of powdered cinnamon
12g caster sugar (1)
17g egg yolk
6g caster sugar (2)
225g liquid cream

Start by preparing the custard: put the gelatine in a bowl of cold water.
Bring the milk, mascarpone, cinnamon and sugar to the boil (1).
Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar (2).



Pour half of the boiling milk over it, whisking well, then pour it back into the saucepan.



Cook over low heat until the temperature reaches 85°C. Add the rehydrated and drained gelatine, then let the cream cool down.
Beat the cold cream until the whipped cream is not too firm.



When the custard is at 30-35°C, add a small portion of the whipped cream and stir in vigorously. Then gently add the rest of the whipped cream, being careful not to let the mixture fall down.



Reserve at room temperature the time to prepare the chocolate mousse.

Chocolate mousse :

150g dark chocolate
100g liquid cream (1)
200g liquid cream (2)

Heat the liquid cream (1).



Melt the chocolate.



Then, pour the hot cream in three times over the melted chocolate, whisking well with a maryse to obtain a smooth and shiny ganache.



Next, whip up the liquid cream (2) into whipped cream and gently fold it in, using a ganache maryse.

Assembly :

Pipe the two mousses alternately in your log mould.



In the center, add the frozen caramel insert, then cover it again with the two mousses.



Add the small biscuit joconde, again a little mousse, and finish with the biscuit joconde.





Finally, put in the freezer until it is completely set.

Icing and decoration :

100g dark chocolate
20g Dulcey chocolate
100g liquid cream
10g powdered sugar

Gently melt each of the two chocolates.




Crumple a large sheet of baking paper (once crumpled it should be big enough to cover the log).



Brush a few strokes of dulcey chocolate on the sheet, wait 2 minutes until the chocolate begins to crystallize, then spread the dark chocolate over the entire surface of the sheet.




Place the sheet immediately on the frozen log, wait for the chocolate to set (it takes a few minutes), then peel off the baking paper.



Set aside in the refrigerator for a few hours for the log to defrost.

Then whip the liquid cream with the powdered sugar to obtain a whipped cream. Pipe it on the cake, then sprinkle with cinnamon or cocoa and enjoy !