Even if you have enough time, stamina, ingredients, and patience to complete a festive holiday table with a grand Bûche de Noël, the one thing you surely do not have enough of is refrigerator space. A Bûche is not complete without this surprisingly simplest ornament. But the ornament without the Bûche? A semi-avante-garde tromp l'oeil delight! A tower of these and a tower of holiday mandarins, some espresso and cordials, and everyone will feel festive, indulged, and light as a feather. And you can make them whenever suits you- they take about 10 minutes of actual work, another hour or so drying in the oven, and 10 minutes of child-friendly kitchen play to assemble.
We will need:
4 egg whites
200 g/ 1 C sugar
pinch salt
tiny dash vinegar
vanilla
a chocolate bar (50 g/2 oz. should be plenty)
non-stick parchment
a zip-lock bag
About egg whites- so many dishes (creme patisserie, eggnog) will call for yolks. Just slip the whites into a jar- 3 or 4 is what you need for most recipes- label how many, and pop them in the freezer. When you need them, put the closed jar in a dish of water- they will be ready to use in about half an hour. You are never far from a beautiful airy dessert (like this pavlova, or these coffee meringues) when you have a jar of whites in the freezer,asI happily did this morning.
Beat the egg whites with the salt and vinegar and when it starts to foam up, start gradually adding the sugar, and keep beating until it is glossy and dense. Turn the top of a lip-lock bag over like you would the neck on a turtleneck sweater and fill with meringue-
This keeps the seal clean. Turn the edge back up, seal the bag, pressing as much air out as possible, and sip off one of the corners to make a small opening. Pipe "stems" by touching the tip to the paper, and squeezing lightly as you pull up. Make caps by squeezing as you hold the bag in place close to the paper. They will all have peaks:
Put some water in a dish, wet your finger, and smooth out the tops:
Dust them randomly with cocoa powder, sifted through a strainer:
Place in a very low oven- 90 C/200F- with a fan if you like. Leave them until they are dry enough to remove from the paper.
Melt the chocolate over simmering water or on low power in the microwave. Paint the bottoms of the mushroom caps, and place the stems on. You can make a small indentation with your finger to place the stem upside down, so the flat side is showing. We did half of each.
Smear any drips of chocolate on the carps to look like dirt. Let the chocolate set, and keep in a box wherever you have room until you are ready to put them out.
