Bûche B (o) uche, the trickster Christmas bûche by Francisco Migoya

Vanilla Streusel Crunch

• 70 g all-purpose flour
• 45 g butter, room temperature (soft)
• 35 g brown sugar
• 1 g vanilla powder
• 0,2 g salt

To coat the streusel

• 30 g white chocolate, melted
• 5 g vegetable oil

Place all the ingredients in a mixer with a paddle attachment. Mix until it is all evenly combined and it looks like small pebbles. Bake in a 350ºF/175ºC oven until golden brown, about 15-18 minutes. If the pieces have baked into each other, wait for them to cool down and break them into small pieces. Reserve at room temperature. Combine the melted white chocolate and the oil, stir well. Mix with the streusel. Divide into two equal parts. Spoon onto the sweet chestnut puree in the square silicone molds in an even, single layer. Press down gently so they submerge slightly into the puree

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Chestnut financier

• 110 g chestnut flour
• 165 g powdered sugar
• 55 g all-purpose flour
• 5 g vanilla powder
• 60 g fat free milk powder
• 140 g egg whites
• 140 g butter, melted but cool

Place two 13.5 x 13.5 cm / 5.25 x 5.25-inch silicone square molds on a half sheet pan; spray with a light coat of oil. Preheat oven to 175°C/350°F. Sift the first five ingredients together into a bowl. Stir in the egg whites and melted butter using a whisk; mix until homogenous. Pour into the square molds (1/2 into each one, about 325 g each). Bake for 30-35 minutes or until fully baked. Allow to cool for 30-40 minutes in the mold and then remove from the mold. Reserve in refrigeration

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Milk chocolate shell

• 1500 g milk chocolate
• 150 g canola oil

Combine both ingredients and melt. Reserve warm until needed.

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Maple and vanilla chantilly

• 13 g gelatin sheets
• 65 g water
• 335 g white chocolate
• 2 e. a. vanilla pod, split in half, seeds scraped
• 1240 g heavy cream
• 100 g maple sugar

Combine the gelatin and water. Bloom completely to soften gelatin. Once bloomed place with the chocolate in a bowl; bowl should be large enough to hold the cream eventually as well. Combine the vanilla beans, heavy cream and sugar in a sauce pot. Bring to a boil, turn heat off and let steep 15 minutes. Strain over the chocolate and bloomed gelatin. Stir to melt the chocolate and the gelatin completely. Cool down over an ice bath. Chill completely in refrigeration for a few hours before whipping.

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White glaze

• 750 ml milk
• 240 ml glucose
• 37,50 ml gelatin sheets, silver, bloomed in cold water
• 750 ml neutral mirror glaze or clear glaze
• 1800 ml white chocolate
• 40 ml titanium dioxide, white food coloring

Bring the milk and glucose up to a boil. Pour over the remaining ingredients and blend with a hand-held blender (keep the blade inside the glaze to prevent bubbles form forming. Pass the glaze through a fine mesh sieve and allow to cool down to 40-43ºC/104-109ºF (I like to set a sous vide bath to 43C/109F and just keep the glaze in there until I need it)

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Montage

Spread 250 g of sweetened chestnut puree evenly in a 12 cm x 12 cm / 4.75 inch x 4.75 inch square mold. Top with the vanilla streusel crunch in a single layer, pushing it gently into the paste; repeat with one more square mold. Blast freeze and then unmold. Reserve frozen. Trim the crown of the chestnut financiers with a serrated knife to make it an even flat square, about 1 inch / 2.5 cm high. Freeze. Dip each financier in the melted milk chocolate shell. Reserve frozen. Whip the maple and vanilla Chantilly to medium stiff and fill the mold 1/3 of the way; dice two marrons glaces and insert into the cream. Fill the mold 1/3 of the way further. Insert the frozen chestnut paste and vanilla streusel crunch inclusion. Insert the financier base. Even out the top and freeze the entremet. Once completely frozen, unmold onto a sheet pan lied with plastic wrap and a wire rack. Warm the white glaze to 40-43ºC/104-109ºF. Coat in the white glaze. Garnish as needed; I used laser-cut rice paper snowflakes that I coated in gold cocoa butter