Recipe for Cream & Calvados Yule Log with Apple and White Chocolate

The day before. Prepare the ganache. Heat 130 g of cream with honey. In parallel, melt the white chocolate in a double boiler. Pour the hot cream in three parts over the melted chocolate, mixing with a spatula after each addition. Add the cold whipping cream and mix. Place plastic wrap directly on the surface and then refrigerate the ganache until the next day.

The day before. The diced apples. Peel and cut the apple into small cubes. In a hot pan, melt the butter and sauté the apple cubes until they are soft. Reserve them in a container in the refrigerator until the next day. The soaking syrup. Heat the water with the vanilla beans and sugar. Once the syrup is hot, remove it from the heat, cover it, and reserve it in the refrigerator until assembly.

The day before. The white chocolate shavings. Melt the white chocolate very gently in a double boiler with the seeds from half a vanilla bean. The chocolate should be soft. On a baking sheet, spread the white chocolate into a very thin layer. Let it cool so that the chocolate hardens. Once cooled, break the thin layer of chocolate into small shavings using your fingers. Store everything in an airtight container at room temperature until the final assembly.

The day has come. Prepare the Viennese biscuit. Preheat your oven to 170°C with fan. Whisk the yolks, eggs, and 50 g of sugar. Beat the egg whites until stiff using an electric mixer, gradually adding the remaining 25 g of sugar. Pour half of the whipped egg whites into the first egg mixture. Gently fold in using a spatula. Add the rest of the egg whites and the flour, then gently mix again.

Roll out the dough on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper to obtain a rectangle of about 30 cm by 40 cm. Bake for about 12 minutes at 170°C. Let the biscuit cool, then peel it off. If necessary, trim it slightly to form a nice rectangle. Flip the biscuit onto a large sheet of parchment paper. The side that was in contact with the baking sheet should be on top. Using a pastry brush, soak the biscuit with the syrup.

Assembling the rolled log. Whip the ganache using a stand mixer until it reaches the consistency of whipped cream. Set aside three large tablespoons of whipped ganache to cover the log. Spread the whipped ganache over the biscuit, leaving 2 cm on one side without ganache. Add the diced apples. Gently roll the log using the parchment paper. Slide it to position it in the center of the parchment paper, with the seam of the biscuit facing down. Wrap the log in the parchment paper and tighten it well to achieve a nice round shape. Reserve the log in the refrigerator for one hour without removing the parchment paper, to allow the whipped ganache to set.

Decoration nuts. Pour 50 g of sugar into a saucepan and heat over medium heat. The sugar will slowly melt and then transform into a thick syrup. As soon as the caramel is amber, reduce the heat to low, dip the nuts one by one into the caramel to coat them. Let them cool on parchment paper.

To finish, take the log out of the refrigerator, remove the parchment paper, and cover it with the remaining whipped ganache. Then sprinkle with white chocolate shavings and place it on a serving platter, adding the decorative hazelnuts. Keep it in the refrigerator (maximum 48 hours) and take it out 30 minutes before serving.