Name: Chocolate, Salted Caramel & Chestnut Yule Log
Prep time: 90 min
Cook time: 12 min
Total time: 102 min
Ingredients: 30 g Butter; 300 ml Double cream; 300 g Dark chocolate; 3 Eggs (large); 75 g Caster sugar; 45 g Plain flour; 30 g Cocoa powder; 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); 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)

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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!

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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!

For the full recipe with measurements, head to the recipe card at the end of this post.

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.

For the full recipe with measurements, head to the recipe card at the end of this post.

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.

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

Troubleshooting

My number one tip for getting the best results is to read through this whole page of tips and recommendations before starting, and follow the recipe exactly. If you have any questions about this recipe, or if something went wrong and you need help, please use the comment form below and I will get back to you. You can also get in touch with me on my Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. I'd love to hear from you!

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