I've tried to put Americanism in ()'s for clarity...
Ingredients
- 250g (8 oz) butter
- 4 egg yolks
- 2 teasp water
- 125g (4 oz) caster sugar
- 150g (5 oz) deluxe dark chocolate for cooking, chopped roughly
- 2 tablespoons brandy
- 175g (6 oz) Amaretto biscuits (cookies)
- 1 tablespoon toasted flaked almonds
- icing sugar (powdered sugar) to dust
Directions
1) melt the butter in a pan and heat gently until it foams up
2) put the egg yolks in a food processor or liquidiser with the water and pulse for 30 seconds to blend
3) add the melted butter in four stages, pulsing between additions for about 10 seconds to create a thick emulsion
4) add half the caster sugar (that's the fine sugar, can't remember what it's called in American English -- not granulated sugar but the finer one used in sponge etc)
5) While the mixture is still quite hot, add the chocolate a little at a time, allowing it to melt into the mixture before adding more. Add the brandy and pulse to combine.
6) Transfer the chocolate sauce to a large bowl - it should have a spreadable consistancy. If it separates, add another egg yolk and process the mixture again
7) Use the chocolate sauce to sandwich together 13 biscuits into a log shape. Do this directly on your serving platter. Once they are stuck together, spread a layer of the sauce on the sides, and stick five biscuits along each side and five along the top.
8) Cover the sides with more chocolate sauce and score with a fork to simulate the bark, placing an amaretto biscuit at each end. You can, if you wish, create a branch or stump by sandwiching two extra biscuits together and sticing them to the top of the log.
9) Decorate the top with flaked almonds. Allow to harden for a few hours in a cool place.
10) to finish, dust lightly with icing sugar and decorate with a sprig of mistletoe or holly. Any remaning chocolate sauce can be rolled up into balls and dusted with cocoa to make truffles.
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Submitted 6/13/05.
Source: Sainsbury's Quick and Easy Cakes and Bakes
Submitted By: Sylvia Wrigley
charity@intrigue.demon.co.uk
Yule Log