Home Sweet Caramel and Chocolate Nut Log

Caramel and Chocolate Nut Log

Difficulté : Medium
Catégorie : Sweet
Cout : Affordable
Here is my caramel nut and chocolate log! The recipe will seem long, but remember that I tend to detail everything. In the end, there is nothing very complicated about it. You can (and probably even “should”) start preparing some items the day before. Like salted butter caramel sauce, nut pralines etc. 
A buttercream log with caramelized walnuts, walnut dacquoise with a bit of salted butter caramel sauce, crushed walnut pralines and a chocolate crème montée topped with a caramel mirror. A small light dessert…
You can of course make this dessert the rest of the year in a cake format, a bit like my pistachio macaroon cake

Recipe for the caramel walnut and chocolate log: (for a 23cm long log mould):
-half a recipe of salted butter caramel sauce (recipe HERE

For the mousseline cream: (nut butter cream + pastry cream)

Praline nut butter cream (butter+praline nut+custard)

  -275g of soft butter at temperature   
  -100g of walnut pralines (recipe HERE)
 Custard:
  -70g of milk
  -30g of yolk (you have to weigh them!!)
  -70g of sugar

Custard:
-110g of milk
-8g of whole milk powder
-25g of egg yolk
-25g of sugar
-4g of custard powder
-15g of soft butter 

Dacquoise Nuts:
-85g of whites
-35g of caster sugar
-90g of nuts
-20g of flour
-90g of powdered sugar


Chocolate cream:
-100g of full cream
-50g of dark chocolate
-5g of powdered sugar


Caramel mirror:
-200g of sugar
-200g of full cream
-4 gelatin sheets (8g)


A few nut pralines to crush and walnut kernels to decorate

Start the day before by preparing your nut pralines and salted butter caramel sauce. You can also prepare the pastry cream:

Put the 25g of egg yolks in a bowl with the powdered milk, half the sugar and the custard powder. (In the photo, there are more yolks than in the recipe!).


Mix with a whisk. 




Boil the milk with the other half of the sugar and the butter. 






When the milk boils, pour a small amount of it over the yolk-cream powder mixture. 




Mix well.




Pour this mixture back into the saucepan in the remaining hot milk. 




Return to low heat. Boil for three to four minutes while whisking. 




Pour the custard into a dish.




Cover with cling film directly on top of the cream. Let cool completely then place in a cool place. 


Prepare the custard:
Blanch the yolks with one third of sugar.



Heat the milk with the remaining sugar over low heat. When boiling, pour over yolk/sugar mixture while stirring.


Return to low heat and cook like a custard, i.e. without boiling. You can check by cooking up to 85°C while mixing! 
I continually whip the cream while it cooks to make it airy and smooth.


Pour into the bowl with the whisk (or always into a bowl with an electric whisk!).


Whip on medium speed until cream is room temperature. 


The cream then takes on an incredible consistency!


Pour into a bowl and store in a cool place for one hour, with cling film over the bowl. 


Put the butter at room temperature in the bowl. Whip for 5 minutes at high speed.


Add thecooled custard and cream and whip on high speed for 2 minutes.



Place 100g of walnut pralines in a blender and blend them to a coarse powder.




Pour into the buttercream and whip again for one minute.




Here is the log mould. Put a good layer of nut buttercream (at least 1cm) all over the bottom and the edges. 





If you made your caramel the day before, it should be cold or at least at room temperature.





Pour a thick layer of the mixture in the bottom of the pan over the nut buttercream. 



Now place the pan in the freezer until the buttercream and caramel are set. 
When they have set, spoon a layer of buttercream to cover the caramel. 
Try to get as even a layer as possible. You can even out with a tablespoon. Return to freezer.




Prepare your walnut dacquoise. 
Put the walnut kernels in a blender to reduce them to a powder. 


Add the flour and powdered sugar. 




Mix again to obtain a fine powder.




Beat the egg whites until stiff with the caster sugar. Then add the nut powder.




Mix with a spatula, lifting as you would for a chocolate mousse, so that the whites do not fall back. 




Pour onto parchment paper the size of your baking sheet. It doesn’t matter how well it’s done, just try to get an even layer in terms of thickness. 




Bake for 20 minutes at 180°C.




Let cool, then peel the dacquoise from the paper. Cut a first rectangle of dough and place it in the bottom of the pan.






Put back a layer of cream and then place some nut pralines that you will break by hand. 




Put a second rectangle of dough. Since the mold here has a rounded shape, the second rectangle is therefore larger. 



Place the pan back in the freezer. 
Prepare the chocolate whipped cream. 
Put the very cold cream and powdered sugar in a bowl and whip to whip. 
Add the melted chocolate (it should not be too hot) and continue to whisk to combine. 




Take the pan out of the freezer and put the chocolate cream layer on top. 



Put if you want, a layer of crushed nuts. 





Cut a last rectangle of dough and put it on the chocolate whipped cream.




Wrap in cling film and freeze overnight if you can, or at least 3 hours.




Prepare your caramel mirror one hour before you finish the log.
Put the gelatin sheets in cold water to soften them.
Put the sugar with a little water (just enough to soak it) and bring it to a nice caramel color without mixing. 




Off the heat, pour in the full cream a little at a time (which you will have warmed up to avoid splashing!). You can mix it up this time!







Add the gelatin leaves that you have wrung out. Mix well to distribute the gelatin evenly in the caramel. Now let cool to 28-29°C, stirring occasionally. 




Turn out the log (when the caramel is ready: 28-29°C) with a hair dryer (or even a heat gun which I use here) on a baking rack. 




Place the rack on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.




Pour the caramel mirror over the log. 




The gelatin will set on contact with the frozen log. 




Place the log on a serving dish and decorate with nuts. Then put the log in the fridge to let it thaw completely. 


The log should be eaten fresh (not frozen)! Happy New Year to all! 

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The end of year festivities are coming up, Christmas is almost here! I offer you a selection of festive recipes to delight your taste buds and your guests. Tarama, foie gras, logs, I give you all my secrets. There are in this selection, recent recipes and others that I have published for nearly 12 years, so the photos are not all equal! Just click on the recipes to access them!

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