Bûche De Noël (A French Christmas Dessert) Recipe by Tasty (2024)

FAQs

What is a bûche de Noël commonly eaten in France at Christmas? ›

Bûche de Noël is the French name for a Christmas cake shaped like a log. This one is a heavenly flourless chocolate cake rolled with chocolate whipped cream and decorated with confectioners' sugar to resemble snow on a yule log. It doesn't just look beautiful — it tastes wonderful, too!

1. Bûche de Noël (Christmas Log) If you guessed that this iconic French Christmas dessert would snag the top spot, you were correct.

These bakers are creating a bûche de Noël, or Yule log. This traditional Christmas cake originated in France during medieval times to honor the burning of the Yule log, a giant and heavy log that was placed in the hearth and not allowed to ever burn out completely.

Combined with the religious element, this tradition gave the Christmas season its festive character well before gifts inundated households. The thirteen desserts are in reference to Jesus and his twelve apostles at the Last Supper.

1. Crème brûlée. This custard based dessert is topped with a layer of crunchy caramel. The dessert is popular all over the world, but it originated in France, making it a must-try for anyone who's traveling through.

The mille-feuille is a quintessentially French dessert made of layers of flaky puff pastry and pastry cream. It's simply known as the mille-feuille meaning 'thousand leaves' referring to its many layers.

Pierre Lacam is widely credited with publishing the first recipe for the bûche de Noël, in Le Mémorial Historique et Géographique de la Pâtisserie, a weighty tome published in 1890, containing snippets of history, along with 1,600 recipes for regional cakes and pastries.

Arguably one of the most famous of these is the Bûche de Noël. Originating in France, this popular log-shaped sponge cake is also known as a Yule Log, and it is steeped in history.

The buche de Noel cake is sometimes called a jellyroll cake, because the yule log cake portion is baked in a long, wide jellyroll or half sheet pan. This gives you that long, thin cake portion that you can spread filling on top of a roll up to form the “log.”

noun. log [noun] a thick piece of unshaped wood.

Why is Christmas called Noël in France? ›

It comes from French Nöel—the French way of saying “Merry Christmas” is Joyeux Noël. The word derives from Latin word nātālis (diēs), meaning “birthday.” Another name for Christmas is Nativity.

1. : a Christmas carol. The choir sang noels during the Christmas season. 2. capitalized : christmas.

The French Christmas Meal

The French do eat turkey typically with a chestnut stuffing (farcé aux marrons) but they will often choose other game birds to serve at Christmas time too, like guinea fowl (pintade) quail (caille), pheasant (faisan) or goose (oie).

The Réveillon is one of the very best (and most delicious!) French Christmas traditions. It's the biggest meal of the holiday season, eaten on Christmas Eve, instead of Christmas Day. The meal is usually served before or after Midnight Mass, and it's a luxurious banquet.

On Christmas Eve, it's time for the Réveillon de Noël feast. Réveillon literally means "awakening." In a symbolic sense, the Réveillon is a kind of spiritual bugler's reveille — awakening people to the meaning of Jesus' birth.

Le Réveillon is a traditional late-night feast or party held when families return from la Messe de Minuit (Midnight Mass) on Christmas Eve. While the food tradition varies from region to region, the meal is full of lavish delicacies including oysters, foie gras, escargot, and roasted fowl.