VIDEO. The easy recipe for a praline Christmas log by a pastry chef in Le Havre

It is THE Christmas cake par excellence, even if some like to play extra time by serving it to guests on the evening of December 31. We are talking about the log here!

And this year, it is Émeline Lepillier, owner of the Atelier Gourmand in Harfleur near Le Havre, who is offering a praline log recipe, simple, and whose total cost is between 30 and 40 euros. It all depends on what you have at home.

All the ingredients are affordable and easily found in supermarkets.

The production time: a good half-day of preparation, and four hours in the refrigerator.

What are the ingredients ?

Before getting to the dough, here is the list of ingredients:

• 225g hazelnuts;
• 360g of sugar;
• 30g of honey;
• 33cl of milk;
• 8 eggs;
• 33g of cornstarch;
• 170g of butter;
• 100g of praline paste;
• 36g hazelnut powder;
• 36g of ground almonds;
• 73g of icing sugar;
• 63g of flour.

The indications above are very precise, but as Emeline points out, “in pastry, we are entitled to 10 grams of error! »

Then you will need to follow all the steps in the video below.

In detail, here is the recipe for this praline log:

• Step 1: roasted hazelnuts

Preheat the oven to 170°C.
Crush the hazelnuts into small pieces, put them on a baking sheet and bake for fifteen minutes.
Prepare a saucepan with 0.6cl of water and 225g of sugar, and heat to 110°C.
Once the syrup has reached 110°C, off the heat, mix in the previously roasted hazelnuts and mix until you obtain a sandy mixture.
Then put everything back on medium heat and stir continuously until the hazelnuts are caramelized.

Get rid of it on a plate and spread it all out.

• Step 2: the soaking syrup

Boil a mixture of 15cl of water, 35g of sugar and 30g of honey. Then put it all in the fridge.

• Step 3: the pastry cream

Heat 33cl of milk in a saucepan, then mix 3 egg yolks, 46g of sugar and 33g of cornflour separately.

Then, pour half of the milk over the yolk/sugar/cornflour mixture and whisk. Return this mixture to the saucepan and whisk for two to three minutes over medium heat.

Off the heat, add 83g of butter, 100g of praline and mix. The preparation then goes to the refrigerator.

• Step 4: the almond-hazelnut biscuit

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Whip for two minutes 36g of ground hazelnuts, 36g of ground almonds, 73g of icing sugar, two egg yolks and two whole eggs.

At the same time, whisk four egg whites and gradually add 50g of sugar.

Mix the two preparations a first time by adding 30g of flour. Repeat the maneuver a second time, adding the rest of the flour.

Pour the plate on a dough and bake at 180°C for 12min. Once the cookie is ready, let it cool.

• Step 5: mousseline cream

To the previously made pastry cream, add 80g of slightly melted butter. Then, we beat everything and leave it at room temperature.

• Step 6: the rolled biscuit

Gently peel off the sheet of the almond-hazelnut biscuit. Then, soak the biscuit with the previously made syrup.

Spread the mousseline cream over the biscuit evenly before adding the roasted hazelnuts by hand. Save some for decoration!
Roll the whole on itself to form a sausage, squeezing firmly to avoid air bubbles.
Wrap in cling film to keep the shape and put in the freezer for 1 hour.

• Step 7: finalization

Take out the mousseline cream and leave it for 30 minutes at room temperature, before whipping it.

Then take the log out of the fridge and coat it with the rest of the mousseline cream.

If you wish, you can put gold dust on the remaining hazelnuts before placing them on the log.

Once the decoration is finished, the log will be put back in the refrigerator for four hours before being eaten!

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