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    Chocolate, Salted Caramel & Chestnut Yule Log

    20/11/2016 by thebakingexplorer 18 Comments

    Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

    This Chocolate, Salted Caramel & Chestnut Yule Log is something a bit different from the traditional yule log. It's a light chocolate sponge filled with salted caramel sauce and chestnut cream, covered in chocolate ganache, lashings of salted caramel sauce and some salted caramel fudge on top. It's a very grown up and decadent holiday dessert!

    Chocolate, Salted Caramel & Chestnut Yule Log

    The recipe and photos for this post were updated in December 2020.

    What are chestnuts?

    Chestnuts are the nuts of a chestnut tree (not to be confused with horse chestnuts or conkers, which are not edible). They are very popular in desserts in europe, and they give the cream a gorgeous nutty flavour. You can buy ready made and sweetened chestnut puree, or ready cooked chestnuts that you can easily blend and sweeten to create the puree. If you've not tried them in desserts before, I highly recommend it!

    How to make Chocolate, Salted Caramel & Chestnut Yule Log

    Make the chocolate ganache first by melting double cream, butter and dark chocolate together. Leave it to cool and thicken. Whisk up eggs with caster sugar in an electric food mixer for 8 minutes until it has trebled in size and reached ribbon stage. This means where you can make a figure eight on the batter and it doesn't immediately sink back into itself.

    Sieve out plain flour and cocoa powder into a bowl and then fold it into the egg mixture. Then pour the batter into the tin and tip it to spread the mixture out into each corner. Bake it for 12 minutes.

    Immediately tip it out onto another sheet of baking paper and roll it up, rolling the fresh sheet of baking paper with it. Leave it to cool fully on a cooling rack. Make the chestnut puree by mixing together cooked and peeled chestnuts, icing sugar, vanilla and water in a blender.

    Unroll the cooled sponge and spread salted caramel sauce all over it. For the chestnut cream, whip up some double cream and stir the chestnut puree into it.

    Spread the cream over the caramel sauce, then roll the sponge back up. Then cover the whole thing with the chocolate ganache. To decorate, sprinkle a bashed up flake bar over the ganache, then drizzle over more salted caramel sauce and top with salted caramel fudge.

    Chocolate, Salted Caramel & Chestnut Yule Log

    What caramel sauce should I use?

    My favourite caramel sauce to use is my Homemade Caramel Sauce, it’s rich, smooth and absolutely divine! You can also easily add salt to it to make it into a salted caramel sauce. If you don’t want to make your own, it’s quite easy nowadays to find a good quality ready made caramel (or salted caramel) sauce in the shops or online. I have used Tesco’s Finest, Bonn Maman and Carnation Caramel in the past with great results.

    How do you make sweetened chestnut puree?

    You can buy ready made jars or packets of either sweetened chestnut puree (also known as creme de marrons), or unsweetened chestnut puree. Try looking online or in a gourmet food shop. If you buy it unsweetened, you can add the icing sugar and vanilla directly to the puree and stir in. When I made this recipe, I used a packet of ready cooked and peeled chestnuts, so I had to puree them down first in a blender. If you can't find those either you can buy uncooked chestnuts and roast them first, then peel and puree. Do not use raw chestnuts.

    What can be done with leftover chestnut puree?

    Leftover unsweetened chestnuts or puree, can be used in other desserts, or stirred into risottos, stews or pies. They are also great in nut roasts and mixed into stuffing. Leftover sweetened chestnut puree can be used in other desserts, swirled into yoghurt and rice pudding, or you can freeze it for future use.

    Chocolate, Salted Caramel & Chestnut Yule Log

    Tips for making the Chocolate, Salted Caramel & Chestnut Yule Log:

    • Don’t overfill it. Being overly generous with the filling means you won’t get a nice tight roll
    • Don’t cut or score it to “start the roll off”, this can too easily go wrong and the whole section will break off
    • Start the roll off as tight as you can and the rest will follow
    • When folding the flour in, be gentle and go slowly to avoid losing volume
    Chocolate, Salted Caramel & Chestnut Yule Log

    Recommended equipment & ingredients*

    • Swiss Roll tin
    • Mixing bowls
    • Cooling rack
    • Kitchen scales
    • Salted Caramel Sauce
    • Stand mixer
    • Flake bar
    • NutriBullet
    • Chestnut puree

    *I earn a small amount of money if you buy the products after clicking on the links. You will not be charged anything extra for this. Thank you for supporting The Baking Explorer!

    Chocolate, Salted Caramel & Chestnut Yule Log

    More Yule Log recipes:

    • Chocolate Yule Log
    • Chocolate Orange Yule Log
      Chocolate Orange Yule Log
    • Chocolate Roulade with Baileys Cream
    • Biscoff Yule Log
      Biscoff Yule Log
    Chocolate, Salted Caramel & Chestnut Yule Log

    Chocolate, Salted Caramel & Chestnut Yule Log

    A chocolate swiss roll filled with salted caramel sauce and chestnut cream, covered in chocolaye ganache
    5 from 18 votes
    Print Pin Rate
    Course: Dessert
    Cuisine: British
    Keyword: Cake
    Prep Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
    Cook Time: 12 minutes
    Total Time: 1 hour 42 minutes
    Servings: 10
    Author: thebakingexplorer

    Ingredients

    For the chocolate ganache

    • 30 g Butter
    • 300 ml Double cream
    • 300 g Dark chocolate

    For the sponge

    • 3 Eggs large
    • 75 g Caster sugar
    • 45 g Plain flour
    • 30 g Cocoa powder

    For the filling

    • 100 g Chestnuts I used Merchant Gourmet
    • 35 g Icing sugar
    • 1 tsp Vanilla extract
    • 2 tsp Water
    • 150 ml Double cream
    • 125 g Salted caramel sauce good quality shop bought or homemade

    For decoration

    • 1 Cadburys Flake Bar or grated dark chocolate
    • 35 g Salted caramel sauce good quality shop bought or homemade
    • 30 g Salted caramel fudge good quality shop bought or homemade
    Metric - US Customary

    Instructions

    • Make the ganache first as it needs time to cool. Heat the double cream and butter in a pan on a low heat, you want to to be warm but not so hot you couldn't hold your finger in it
    • Take it off the heat and add the dark chocolate broken into pieces. Leave for a few minutes, then stir and the chocolate should have melted. You can put back on a very low heat if needed to melt all of the chocolate. Put aside to cool and thicken, or in the fridge if you're a rush
    • Pre-heat your oven to 160C Fan/180C/400F/Gas Mark 6, line a swiss roll tin or a baking tray with a lip, with baking paper. The one I used was a Wilton tray that is 33.7 x 23.5 cm (13.25 x 9.25 inches)
    • For the sponge, whisk the eggs and sugar together with an electric whisk or in a food mixer for around 8 minutes or until it reaches 'ribbon stage' - this is when you can drizzle the mixture in a figure 8 and it takes more than 3 seconds to sink back in
    • Sieve the plain flour and cocoa powder into a bowl and then fold it into the egg mixture gently, trying not to lose the volume
    • Pour the batter into the lined tray and gently spread the mixture out into each corner
    • Bake it for 12 minutes. Immediately tip it out onto a clean sheet of baking paper dusted with icing sugar and roll it up, rolling the clean sheet of baking paper with it. Leave it to cool fully
    • To make the chestnut puree (if you are not using a ready made one) put the cooked and peeled chestnuts, icing sugar, water and vanilla into a blender and whizz up into a puree
    • Whip the double cream and stir the chestnut puree into it
    • Unroll the sponge and spread the caramel filling all over it evenly, then spread the chestnut cream over the caramel sauce, then roll the sponge back up carefully and place onto your serving plate
    • Spread the chocolate ganache all over the roll. You want this to be quite rough as the roll is meant to look like a log. If the ganache is too solid from the fridge you can heat it up in the microwave to soften it, do 10 seconds to start with, then stir and do more very short blasts if needed as you don't want it to get too runny
    • Bash up 1 flake bar and sprinkled it all over the wet icing
    • Drizzle over the salted caramel sauce and top with the salted caramel fudge
    • Serve immediately, store any leftovers in the fridge for up to 2 days
    Made this recipe?Share on Instagram with me @TheBakingExplorer or tag #thebakingexplorer!

    Notes

    If you need a caramel sauce recipe, try my Homemade Caramel Sauce.
    If you need a salted caramel fudge recipe, try my Salted Caramel Fudge.

    Nutrition

    Calories: 474kcal | Carbohydrates: 38g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 34g | Saturated Fat: 20g | Cholesterol: 119mg | Sodium: 66mg | Potassium: 369mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 21g | Vitamin A: 819IU | Vitamin C: 4mg | Calcium: 66mg | Iron: 5mg

    If you like this, check out more of my Swiss Roll recipes!

    Or check out my Christmas recipes!

    « An Evening at John Whaite's Kitchen
    Vegan Mincemeat Plait »

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Sammie

      November 20, 2016 at 3:54 pm

      5 stars
      This looks so good. I'm not really a fan of chestnuts, but I'd actually try this recipe, as it's the texture I'm not keen on. Your Yule log looks so beautiful, I'll definitely try this recipe.

      Reply
      • Kat BakingExplorer

        November 27, 2016 at 7:59 pm

        Thanks Sammie, do let me know what you think of it!

        Reply
    2. JanVinyard

      November 20, 2016 at 5:03 pm

      5 stars
      Hi Kat, What a beautiful Yule Log! Thanks for sharing the recipe! Well done! Blessings, Janet

      Reply
      • Kat BakingExplorer

        November 27, 2016 at 8:00 pm

        Thanks Janet!

        Reply
    3. Stuart Vettese

      November 20, 2016 at 7:06 pm

      5 stars
      You're making me feel all festive! Great combo of flavours Kat x

      Reply
      • Kat BakingExplorer

        November 27, 2016 at 8:00 pm

        Good to hear Stuart! 🙂

        Reply
    4. Mandy

      November 20, 2016 at 8:35 pm

      5 stars
      This sounds so delicious! I'd love a slice of this right now.

      Reply
      • Kat BakingExplorer

        November 27, 2016 at 8:01 pm

        Thank you Mandy! Give the recipe a try it's worth it 🙂

        Reply
    5. Kirsty Hijacked By Twins

      November 21, 2016 at 8:55 pm

      5 stars
      What a lovely yule log and I love the salted caramel flavours! Thank you for sharing with #CookBlogShare x

      Reply
      • Kat BakingExplorer

        November 27, 2016 at 8:02 pm

        Thanks Kirsty! The salted caramel is soooo yummy 🙂

        Reply
    6. Corina

      November 22, 2016 at 10:44 am

      5 stars
      It looks lovely! I am thinking of having a go at my first Christmas yule log this year and I love the caramel in the filling for this one!

      Reply
      • Kat BakingExplorer

        November 27, 2016 at 8:03 pm

        Yes do give it a try Corina! I hope you enjoy it 🙂

        Reply
    7. Angela Campos

      November 26, 2016 at 2:38 pm

      5 stars
      This sounds amazing!!! Thanks for sharing at Sunday Fitness & Food 🙂

      Reply
      • Kat BakingExplorer

        November 27, 2016 at 8:04 pm

        Thanks Angela! And thanks for hosting!

        Reply
    8. ilkasblog

      November 27, 2016 at 7:19 pm

      5 stars
      Kat - You did such an amazing job with this log cake. It looks absolutely beautiful and so perfect for the Holidays. You really inspired me to give this a try - I just need to replace the heavy cream.
      Pinning and stumbling this beauty for other people to get inspired!

      Reply
      • Kat BakingExplorer

        November 27, 2016 at 8:05 pm

        Thank you so much! Perhaps try coconut milk for the replacement?

        Reply
    9. Choclette Blogger

      December 03, 2016 at 12:26 pm

      5 stars
      This Yule log sounds quite exciting. Thanks for sharing.

      Reply
      • Kat BakingExplorer

        February 25, 2017 at 10:13 pm

        Thanks Choclette!

        Reply

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