Tell me about Yule Logs please!

[Spitoutthebauble]

What is the best tin to use?

What is your handy tip?

Are they hard to decorate?

Best tin - size depends on your recipe
Handy tip - follow Nigella's recipe
Decoration - easy, Nigella's icing, fork to make 'bark lines', dusting of icing sugar, any suitable cake decorations you have to hand, plastic robins etc.

You'll need a Swiss roll tin, surely?

Swiss roll tin. Always cover when you roll. Nigella's recipe is really good. Don't panic! Hold your nerve.

I will happily volunteer to be your guinea pig!

I make one every year, but I fill it with sweetened chestnut puree and ice it with melted Nutella, which improves the flavour.
A few tips:
Grease your Swiss roll tin and line it with greaseproof paper.
Whisk the eggs and sugar for a full eight minutes, to ensure a rich creamy foam and a moist soft sponge.
Cheat and add half a teaspoon of baking powder to the plain flour, to assist the steam to raise the mixture. It will be that wee bit lighter.
When you put the Swiss roll in the oven, get a teatowel ready. Wring it out in hot water, and lay a sheet of greaseproof paper on top.
Turn the roll out onto the paper. Using the hot wet towel to keep the sponge moist and stop it cracking, gently roll it up, with the paper (but not the towel, obvs!) inside the roll. Fold the towel over the top to keep it damp and leave it to cool.
When it’s cold, slowly and gently unroll it, remove the paper and put in your filling - chestnut, whipped cream, whatever you like - and roll back up with the filling inside.
You can freeze it at this stage, then defrost and decorate it on the day you eat it.
Easiest decoration- melt Nutella in the microwave, spread over the roll with a palette knife, use a fork to roughen the surface to look like bark. Just before serving, sprinkle a little icing sugar on as snow, and stick in a holly sprig.

@PassataQueenofBritain

You'll need a Swiss roll tin, surely?

Usually that is OK, but I make one and a half times Nigella’s quantity to allow plenty of length so I can cut off a chunk and make it a ‘branch’. so I use a lined roasting tin.

PS. Haven’t tried Nigella’s - my recipe is from the 1970’s edition of Good Housekeeping cookbook, tweaked over the years!

Hmm @TrickyD do you have a recipe please? I need a greater quantity as the IKEA Swiss roll Tin is bigger dimensions than my old one!

It’s here, online Passata.
Her recipe does not use flour, Mary B’s does.

Thanks Tricky- actually no flour is good as DD is GF!

This is amaaaaaaaaaazing as I am coeliac! You utter viperly legends.

Okay, still not clear on the tin though - I’ll have to buy one so don’t be shy in recommending a good one!

Just do what trickyd does, and use a lined roasting tin! (Wish I'd known that before I replaced mine tbh)

@Babdoc

Where do you live and do you take orders, I will pay!

Sounds delicious

still not clear on the tin though
They are actually called Swiss roll tins and are a large shallow rectangle.

I find a swiss roll tin gives a better shape for me, but it's clearly a matter of personal preference. Anywhere will sell you a swiss roll tin!

I will photograph my Ikea roasting tin and submit it for approval.

The shape will not be as good with a roasting tin. My top tip for any cake baking would be - use the exact size of tin recommended in the recipe - yule log generally needs a swiss roll tin.

@AliceBlueGown

The shape will not be as good with a roasting tin. My top tip for any cake baking would be - use the exact size of tin recommended in the recipe - yule log generally needs a swiss roll tin.

If you are making one and a half times the quantity, a Swiss roll tin would not work. Regardless, a roasting tin of suitable dimensions with straight sides will not give an inferior shape.

T k Maxx usually have good Swiss roll tins.

@AliceBlueGown

The shape will not be as good with a roasting tin. My top tip for any cake baking would be - use the exact size of tin recommended in the recipe - yule log generally needs a swiss roll tin.

I'm trying to find a Swiss roll tin on Amazon but it brings up a mix of tins - some called Swiss Roll some Roasting tins. The Nigella recipe doesn't state size but this one mentions roulades and rolls in the reviews. Is it too big or ok?

MasterClass Baking Tray with PFOA Free Non Stick, Robust 1 mm Carbon Steel, 35 x 25 cm https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000FUAEYM/ref=cmswwrcppapifabcc_Mls2FbVQ4RJHC

Jamie Oliver did a Yule log last week and it looked amazed, and really easy.

It doesn't matter too much if the shape is a bit off or the rolling doesn't work perfectly - it's meant to look like a log and defects will disappear beneath the chocolate ganache or whatever 'bark'.

Yes nigella lets the side down by saying ‘a Swiss roll tin’ dimensions NL, dimensions! .

Ooh, a watertight excuse to visit the TK Maxx store you say? Excellent.

I have two tefal trays but they’re only 1.7 cm deep - that’s not enough is it?

Excited at hiding all my mistakes under ganache bark!

https://www.nigella.com/ask/what-is-a-swiss-roll-tin

@ErrolTheDragon

[[https://www.nigella.com/ask/what-is-a-swiss-roll-tin]]

NIGELLA! Is it you? Merry Christmas you dear thing if so, I am still rereading and loving How to Eat as one of the greatest writings on food of all time. Even if my life right now is very far away from choosing how best to serve poussin at a light spring lunch for eight.