Peaceful wishes for Christmas to all my cyber friends.
Christmas baking - the Bûche de Noël for dessert on Christmas Eve, and a brioche for breakfast on Christmas morning. At the time of writing this, we haven't yet had the brioche, but I took the advice of a workmate to try using some Italian 00 flour (he'd just been using some for traditional soft bread-rolls from the part of the country he comes from), and it certainly rose beautifully and feels lovely and light.
I tried to make the Bûche a little less rich than last year when I used ganache and a cooked buttercream - and judging by C's verdict after eating the trimmings off the ends, I succeeded. I'm still using my mother's original recipe, which actually I think is American and not French at all, as it comes from The Gold Cook Book by Louis P. De Gouy, who was the chef at the Waldorf Astoria for 30 years. It's my brother who has the book, but I have the recipe on an index card, and so far I've managed not to lose it. I guess, actually, since De Gouy's father was the "Esquire of Cuisine" in the royal courts in Belgium and Austria, it could have European roots.
I added four peacocks to the flock of birds adorning my tree this year - when I saw them in TK Maxx back in November I couldn't resist them; one has taken up a perch for the evening on the log. I appear to have lost the little sprig of holly I made for it a couple of years ago using an Impression Obsession die, so this time I cut a couple of sprays of ivy from Yupo, reckoning that it wouldn't get soggy even in contact with the cake.
The brioche recipe is from Stephen Harris in The Telegraph. We won't be having raspberry compote with ours, I bought some nice jam in a fine-food store.
