“Straight to the point”, that could be the adage of Cyril Lignac’s pastry making if it wasn’t already jealously guarded by a football club! In fact, his pastries hit the mark every time. Always precise, with the right dose of cream, a mix of effective textures, a chiseled look, it’s simple, the pastry of Cyril Lignac and his teams is a lesson in every bite. Nothing is missing: it’s always effective, delicious, and beautiful.
The rolled log by Cyril Lignac
For his chocolate-hazelnut rolled log, Cyril Lignac relies on sure values: a soft biscuit, homemade spread, and a crunchy icing. Nothing more, but above all nothing less!
The cookie
Essential element of the rolled log: the biscuit. There is no question of skipping this step or doing it in a hurry, this is the main “material” of the dessert.
To prepare it, you have to work in two stages, on one side the work of 2 egg yolks, 3 whole eggs, and 135g of sugar which you whisk until you obtain a ribbon, before integrating 85g of sifted flour. On the other, 6 egg whites which are whipped with 85g of sugar to tighten them. All that remains is to gently combine the two preparations then spread them on a rectangular plate.
All that remains is to cook the biscuit for barely 5 minutes at 210°C.
Rolling the hot biscuit
Essential technical action for any rolled biscuit: hot unmolding then rolling.
When you make a rolled biscuit, you must unmold it while hot on a damp cloth before re-rolling everything with the cloth as explained in this tutorial. Thus the biscuit already takes a “shape” but above all will not break during assembly. We want a rolled log, not unstructured!
We don’t forget to “trim” the ends, that means, cut the edges cleanly, for a great visual.
The garnish
For the filling, the chef uses his own spread and he is right! If at home you cannot buy the chef’s product, you can reproduce it at home. Dark chocolate, milk chocolate, or even praline, nothing beats homemade products. The only important point to remember: texture. Indeed, the spread must be flexible enough to spread, but not so liquid that it flows everywhere. A product that is too thick will alter the appearance and could damage the biscuit, and a liquid dough will not hold together, which will result in a result that is too dry.
When we have obtained the right texture, we spread the spread over the entire biscuit before rolling the whole thing.
The icing
Cyril Lignac adorns his log with a “rock glaze”. This type of icing has two advantages: 1/ it is very delicious 2/ it is matte. This last point is very important. Ordinarily, frostings are usually glossy to give a jewel-like shine to cakes. Not this one, and that’s a good thing because it’s even easier to make.
In fact, all you have to do is melt 225g of milk chocolate, then add 2.5cl of sunflower oil, and 50g of crushed roasted hazelnuts, before pouring everything onto the log. All that remains is to let everything cool for around thirty minutes.
So in summary, Cyril Lignac’s chocolate-hazelnut rolled log is an easy cookie, homemade spread and a very simple icing. Thanks boss!
