Easy Cannoli Christmas Yule Log

Easy Cannoli Christmas Yule Log. If you love Italian cannoli you are going to love this yule log made with a light sponge cake, a luscious ricotta filling, and a scrumptious whipped chocolate ganache. Quite easy to make and decorate, bring an Italian inspired dessert to your holiday table.

Song of the day: The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas To You) - Nat King Cole

Cannoli

If you have been to Italy, more specifically in Sicily, you might have tasted the traditional sicilian cannoli filled with sweet ricotta and flavored with candied orange peel, chocolate, or pistachios. We are incorporating these flavors into a festive yule log, otherwise called Buche de Noel, a classic Christmas dessert.

Steps to make Easy Cannoli Christmas Yule Log

1. Make the ricotta filling.
2. Make the Pan di Spagna (sponge cake), and roll it in the towel.
3. Make the chocolate ganache.
4. Unroll the sponge cake, fill, re-roll, and decorate the yule log.

Ingredients

For the Pan di Spagna (sponge cake):

• eggs
• sugar
• flour
• baking powder
• organic lemon, the zest

For the cannoli filling:

• ricotta
• icing sugar
• mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
• candied orange peel

For the chocolate ganache:

• dark or semisweet chocolate (51% or 70%), I used a combination of both semi sweet chocolate chips and dark chocolate bar
• whipping (heavy) cream

Ricotta filling

To ensure the ricotta filling is creamy smooth, there is one step I like to take and that is to pass the ricotta through a fine mesh sieve. You can skip it if you wish, but make sure you whisk the ricotta well to make it creamy. Also, if your ricotta is too watery, let it drain in colander for at least half an hour.

• Sift the ricotta through a mesh sieve over a medium bowl, scraping the bottom of the mesh to remove the ricotta.
• Add the icing sugar to the ricotta and mix well. Toss in the mini semi-sweet chocolate chips, and the candied orange peel, and fold in. Set in the fridge.

How to make Pan di Spagna, Italian sponge cake

Indeed, this is one of those quick and easy recipes that you can use over and over again to make all sorts of jelly roll, stuffed with chocolate hazelnut spread, jam, or whipped cream. This is how we do it:

• Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C. Line a 10-by-15-inch baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
• Lightly dust a kitchen towel with confectioners' sugar. Set aside.
• Put eggs and sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat on high speed until pale and fluffy, about 10 minutes. You can also use a hand-held mixer.
• Sift flour and baking powder over top, add the zest of a lemon, and gently fold in. Pour into the parchment prepared pan, smoothing the top with an offset spatula.
• Bake for 10-13 minutes, or until lightly golden and the top of the cake springs back when touched.
• Invert onto prepared towel and carefully peel off parchment.
• Then, starting at the short end closest to you, roll cake in the kitchen towel allowing the towel to roll in between the cake creating a barrier so the cake does not stick to itself. Let cool for about 20 minutes, seam side down.

The chocolate ganache

This is my easy method to make chocolate ganache. I use it also to make my Double chocolate Italian cream birthday cake, and my Flourless chocolate hazelnut kisses:

• Add chocolate to a bowl.
• Place whiping cream into a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a scalding point.
• Pour hot whipping cream over the chocolate. Let sit for 1 minute, then whisk until smooth. Leave to cool at room temperature. Then, beat on high speed for 1-2 minutes or until fluffy and thick.

Assemble the Cannoli Christmas yule log

• Gently unroll the cake.
• Then, add dollops of ricotta filling on top and spread with the offset spatula, leaving ½ cm from the border.
• Starting at the short end closest to you, reroll the cake, this time with no towel, and leave to cool, seam side down.

Decorate the Cannoli Christmas yule log

This is the fun part of making this Easy Cannoli Christmas Yule Log, decorating:

• Cut a small piece on one end of the roll at an angle.
• Before placing your unfinished log on the serving dish, dust the dish with some powdered sugar. This creates a wonderful snowy platform.
• Arrange the log onto the prepared serving dish and and place the little branch on the side with it facing forward a bit. Scoop the ganache with a spatula on to the top of the yule log. Spread it all over up and down the sides creating a nice surface of chocolate throughout. Leave the front end of the branch and main log without any chocolate so we can see the beautiful cake roll and ricotta filling. Cover the back of the log and branch with ganache.

• Next, we want to create the texture of bark. We do this by using the side of the offset spatula or even a butter knife. Run it lengthwise creating those lovely crevices and lines.

• For decorations, we kept it simple, using some rosemary and candied cherries. However, before placing them in, we dusted the yule log lightly with some powdered sugar.
• Now be creative and stick the sprigs of rosemary into the log. The crevice of the branch is a wonderful place to start.
• Then add in your cherries. They sure bring some beautiful festive color to the dessert. Sprinkle some ground pistachios on the branch. Pistachios is another typical cannoli ingredient, moreover, it looks like moss. For backdrop decorating, cut some spruce branches and/or dried berries and branches.

Now that's some Christmas spirit

What a delightful Sunday we spent making yule logs with a friend and fellow blogger Margaret, Kitchenfrau! We decided to each make a yule log inspired by our heritage: we made our Italian Cannoli Christmas yule log, while Margaret and Raymond made a German-style yule log. The end result was a wonderful array of colors, spices, and fillings. Best part, at the end of the day, we got to taste both yule logs so we could see the difference. Very yummy to say the least.

Check out Margaret and Raymond's Festive Lebkuchen yule log with its spiced sponge cake and whipped cream filling with marzipan. Also, you can see the differences in rolling the log from the short or the long end. Finally, the slightly different ganache and decoration.

Most of all, have fun this holiday season making your own yule log, buche de Noel, tronchetto di Natale. Enjoy the process and the sharing with your loved ones, and cherish the memories.

Buon Natale!

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