Mini-bûche with strawberries

Steps

for the biscuit

• Preheat the oven at 180°C
• Add the egg yolk into a bowl
• Start beating the egg yolk with an electric hand mixer
• Une fois qu’il a la texture d’une omelette, ajoutez la moitié du sucre  petit-à-petit
• Continuez à battre 2’-3’ et ajoutez une pointe de miel ; à la fin, vous aurez une belle crème jaunâtre et lisse
• Start sieving the corn flour on top of the egg by batches, and after each addition, just stir gently with a rubber spatula
• Once you have finished with the corn flour, just do the same thing with the flour
• Once both flour and corn flour are absorbed by the batter, just start beating the egg white
• To do this, start by adding in a bowl, the egg white and just a little bit of salt
• Start beating the egg white and once it starts to cream a mousse, add the rest of the sugar by batches
• Continue to beat after each addition and at the end you will have a nice meringue that forms soft peaks
• Take a little bit of the meringue and add it into the batter
• Stir gently to smooth up the batter
• Add the rest of the meringue into the batter little by little and stir gently after each addition
• Draw a square of 18cm x 18cm onto some parchment paper
• Place the parchment paper onto a tray going into the oven
• Pour the batter on top of the square and smooth its surface with an offset spatula
• Bake for 8’ and let it cool on a rack

for the kirsch syrup

• Mettez dans une petite casserole :
  • the water and
  • the sugar
• Bring it up to boil until the sugar melts
• Remove from heat and let it cool
• Une fois froid, ajoutez le kirsch et mélangez avec un fouet ; le sirop est prêt

 for the Italian meringue

• Add into a metallic bowl the egg whites and a little bit of salt
• Start beating the eggs with an electric hand mixer and at some point add 1 teaspoon of caster sugar
• Stop before forming soft peaks
• Add the sugar and water into a small casserole
• Start boiling and stir well with a whisk
• In the meantime start beating the egg whites again to form soft peaks
• Stop boiling the syrup when its temperature attains 120°C
• Pour the hot syrup in a way to be touching the bowl into the egg whites
• Continue to beat after each addition
• Once the syrup is poured, continue to beat the egg whites until the meringue is almost completely cool

for the thick strawberry syrup

• Add in an electric chopper the clean strawberries without their toppings
• Add the water and turn on the machine
• Une fois le tout mixé, versez le mix dans une fine passoire et pressez avec le dos d’une cuillère ; de cette façon vous garderez que le sirop de fraises
• Add the syrup into a small casserole
• Turn the heat on and stir constantly with a whisk
• Continue to whisk for several minutes until it reduces considerably and becomes quite thick
• Let them cool a little

for bringing everything together

• Wash the strawberries and remove their toppings, slice them in two vertically
• Slice the biscuit in a way to have a rectangle of 16cm x 18cm
• Remove gently the remaining biscuit and keep if for breakfast or tea
• Turn the biscuit upside down and remove gently the parchment paper
• Turn the biscuit upside down again in a way, that the smooth side where the parchment paper laid is facing the dish
• Pour some syrup over the biscuit (just 2-3 tablespoons)
• Spread evenly and all over the apricot jam
• Place the strawberries (halved in two) at the upper top of the biscuit
• Preheat the oven at 240°C
• Place gently the meringue into a piping bag with a star tip of 10mm Ø
• Roll the biscuit towards you and quite tight but be careful not to lose the strawberries in the way
• Place the dessert onto a tray going to the oven covered with parchment paper
• Cover the dessert with the Italian meringue by forming stripes from one end to the other
• Place the dessert into the oven for 2’ until the meringue gets some golden brown color
• Remove the dessert from the oven and place it gently onto a dish or another serving tray
• Let them cool a little
• Get the thick strawberry syrup and pour it all over the dessert while using a teaspoon and making spots of red syrup drops
• Place the dessert into the refrigerator and get a piece the same day or the day after

for the Italian meringues in star shape

• Turn on the oven at 80°C
• Place some parchment paper in a tray going into the oven
• With the piping bag, form small star meringue all over the tray
• (If for some reason the meringue drops off some syrup, just press it on a bowl and start beat again with the electric hand mixer to make the meringue stiff again)
• Bake for 5h in this low temperature
• Let the meringues cool in a rack and store them into a metallic box that does not let the air in
• C’est juste trop bon !
• Enjoy!

Inspiration

I got the inspiration for this recipe while reading the fraisier bûche recipe in this French book Faites votre Pâtisserie comme Lenôtre, Le livre culte enfin réédité, Flammarion, Paris, 2020, p. 158.

You need to know that Lenôtre (besides being the gardener of Louis XIV), is the name of a famous French Pastry Chef called Gaston Lenôtre who invented a famous dessert called Opéra and founded an empire! 

(*) if you do not want to make the star shape Italian meringues, you can use half the quantities for the Italian meringue, it’s enough to make the Italian meringue for the bûche! It’s up to you :-) now you have the quantities for both options :-)