Honey, citrus fruits & crème brûlée christmas log

A new christmas log recipe, the last one this year, with more original flavors! I suspect that it won't please everyone, but I really liked the composition of this log: two layers of vanilla biscuit, I used the delicious recipe of Maxime Frédéric's "annécien", a honey & lemon mousse and an insert of candied citrus fruits. To finish, I decorated my log with a crème brûlée whipped cream, which softens the whole and goes well with the other flavors. So of course, if you don't like honey, I advise you to change the recipe (there are quite a lot of log recipes here), on the other hand, if you like it, I think this honey mousse will delight you ;)

The material I used :
Moule en silicone 25cm



Prep time : preparation of the citrus fruits on 3 days + 50 minutes preparation + time to freeze/unfrost
For a 25cm log :

Candied citrus fruits insert :

1 orange
1 lemon
1 or 2 clementines 
700g sugar
700g water

Bring water and sugar to a boil.
Cut the citrus fruits into slices about 1/2cm thick.



Plunge the slices into the syrup, wait until it starts boiling again, then lower the heat to a slight simmer and cook for about 15 minutes.



Let cool completely without removing the citrus fruits from the syrup.
Repeat the operation several times until you have slices of citrus fruits well candied (I cooked them 8 or 9 times, to be adapted according to the citrus fruits, the cooking time, the thickness of the slices ...).




When the slices are sufficiently candied, take them out of the syrup, take some of them for the decoration of your log, then chop the rest and form a roll in rhodoid paper or pour into a silicone insert mold (I made it in cling film, quite complicated to unmold so I recommend a silicone mold or rhodoid paper).





Put in the freezer until assembly.

Annécien :

60g egg whites
60g cassonade sugar
40g flour
25g butter
½ vanilla bean
Softened butter and cassonade sugar for cooking

Start by melting the butter with the vanilla, and let it cool.



Prepare a French meringue: start to beat the egg whites. When they start to foam, add a first third of the sugar. When the sugar is completely incorporated into the egg whites, add a second, then the same for the third. At the end, you should have a very shiny meringue in which you can no longer see the sugar dots (in all, raising the meringue should take you at least 10 to 15 minutes).



Add the sifted flour (this is important!) to the maryse.




Take a large spoonful of this mixture and add it to the cooled butter.



Mix well, then pour the mixture over the egg whites.



Mix delicately with the maryse until you have a homogeneous paste (be careful not to mix too much at the risk of making the mixture fall down).



Butter a sheet of parchement paper and sprinkle it with cassonade sugar, then pour the dough on 1/2cm thickness.



Bake at 180°C for 8 to 10 minutes.



Let cool, then cut two 25cm long rectangles, one 8cm wide and the other 4cm wide.

Honey lemon mousse :

160g milk
30g lemon juice
The zest of 1 lemon
15g mascarpone
150g honey (according to your taste, I advise you not to take a honey that is too strong, such as chestnut tree honey. I used a mixture of flower honey and orange tree honey)
70g egg yolks
1 teaspoon of sugar
7g gelatin
200g liquid cream

Put the gelatin in a large bowl of cold water.
Heat the milk with the mascarpone, lemon, lemon zest and honey.



Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar, then pour the hot liquid over them.




Put everything back in the pan and cook at 85°C. Remove from the heat, add the rehydrated and wrung out gelatine and leave to cool. When the honey cream is at 35°C, whip the liquid cream into a not too firm whipped cream.



Add the whipped cream delicately to the maryse.

Assembly :

Pour some of the mousse in the mold.



Place the insert, then a little mousse and the small annecien.





Cover with mousse and finish with the other annecien.




Put in the freezer until fully set.

Crème brûlée whipped cream :

30g egg yolks
20g caster sugar
37g milk
125g 35% liquid cream (1)
1/2 vanilla bean
Cassonade sugar

220g 35% liquid cream (2)
90g mascarpone

Heat the milk with the vanilla, and let the mixture infuse for at least 30 minutes. Then heat the mixture again.



Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar.



Pour the hot vanilla milk over it, mix well, then add the cold cream (2).



Pour the cream thus obtained into one or several mould(s) then bake at 95°C for about 30 minutes (to be adjusted according to the size of the mould and therefore the thickness of your cream); the cream is set when it is shaky but more liquid. Allow to cool completely, then caramelize the cream with brown sugar and a blowtorch.




Do not hesitate to caramelize it at least twice, your whipped cream will have even more taste.  Mix the crème brulée, then take 100g of it.



Whip the liquid cream (2) with the mascarpone. When the whipped cream begins to rise, gradually add the crème brûlée and continue to whip until the whipped cream is well risen.

Decoration :

Take the log out of the freezer, unmould it, then let it defrost in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours.
Spread the whipped cream on the unfrost log.




Decorate with some candied citrus fruits and then enjoy!