Although apparently the Christmas log is not for many more than a gypsy arm, in Catalonia it is about a dessert of enormous significance and tradition for the fact of being the representation of the unclethat trunk that feeds and beats so that shit gifts on Christmas Eve.
However, the Christmas log It is a typical New Year’s Eve dessertwhich is when the burning of the uncle in the fireplace, banishing this magical being to the ashes until his next appearance the following Christmas. His ashes were later spread across the field.
Although the uncle It is a very old tradition in honor of the winter solstice and as heating in the coldest days while it burned, This dessert began to be made in the 40s of the last century in honor of the Christmas trunk due to the change of customs.
In the Catalan tradition, the uncle is a trunk that at the beginning of advent is put at home with a Catalan barretinahuman face (eyes, nose and mouth painted) and is covered with a blanket so that it does not get cold.
Every day until Christmas he is fed so that pooped on christmas eve small gifts for children, such as sweets and small gifts while being beaten and singing traditional Christmas carols.
In the 19th century, the widespread use of stoves caused the tradition of warming up in the fireplace and burning the trunk to pass into pretend to have a dessert in memory of that tradition.
Furthermore, currently this tradition has given way to advance in a certain way the Magi and that the famous trunk defecates even bicycles and great gifts so that the little ones can take advantage of the Christmas holidays.
All the magic in a dessert
All this tradition is what the Tronc de Nadal treasures. The main task in its elaboration is that resembles this magical Christmas being as much as possible and that even presents undulations in its finishes like those made by wood in its barks.
The fact of prepare it only once a year It also makes it a particularly desired dessert, and also, due to the dates on which it is eaten, it is usually made as a family, and especially with the help of the little ones.
The best recipes of Direct to the palate (Cooking)
Regarding its origins, the Catalan Christmas log has a much heavier version than the one currently prepared. This lighter version inspired by the Bûche de Noël that is eaten on Christmas night in France.
The tradition in France consists, since the twelfth century, to decorate a trunk and then burn it. Later, his ashes will be stored as a sign of good omens for the coming year.
Among the inventors of the French trunk is a pastry apprentice from the Parisian neighborhood of Saint-Germain-des-prés in 1834, a story that rivals the invention of the dessert by a Lyon pastry chef.
However, the most agreed version is that the pastry chef Pierre Lacam created the recipe for a log of marzipan in 1898 filled with ice cream and covered with fondant that imitated wood.
This tradition, similar to the one that is celebrated in Catalonia in origin (since there are currently few who burn their uncles in Catalonia), is where the tradition is inspired to place this cake as a New Year’s Eve dessert.
Also as a precedent, Marta Manzanares explains in the academic article ‘Catalan pastry calendar’, that the Guild of Pastry Chefs prepared to celebrate the end of the year on Tronc de Sant Silvestre or pastis from Cap d’Anya cake in the shape of a trunk, with rectangular plates and in various flavors.
Truffle stuffing in Catalonia
The Catalan recipe basically consists of making a thin roll-up sponge that is later it is filled with chocolate truffle and covered in chocolate drawing on its surface with a fork ripples of the wood.
The French recipe, however, has a great diversity of possible fillings based on chocolate, praline or coffee buttercream, and there are numerous variants in homes. In addition, there are also various variants that modify the cake with marzipan preparations.
Both trunks share the fact that finished with beautiful decorations that emulate nature and that they try to represent a log prepared to burn in the fireplace.
a culture of fire
Partly, this dessert is also heir to a deep-rooted culture of fire in Cataloniafrom a roaring bonfire, to fireworks, dances of devils with fire and torches.
As Salvador Palomar explains in the article by the Autonomous University of Madrid ‘La fiesta y el fuego’, the burning of the uncle is a new excuse on the calendar for gather families around the bonfire and pass on knowledge and beliefscreate songs and dances and tell stories, all on the occasion of the winter solstice.
In his opinion, the fire appears endowed with a symbolism of purification, renewal, and destroys and transforms the old to make way for a new stage. To the fire and its remains, ashes of the uncle of Christmas or the bonfire on the night of Sant Joan, have been attributed magical and healing virtues.
In the case at hand, the cake is one more gear of this community tradition that seeks to transmit and bequeath to the new generations all this tradition. However, it is also a way that society had to renew itself to welcome a new year with open arms.
Photo: Eric Sonstroem/Flickr, Enric Rubio/Flickr, Javi Vte Rejas/Flickr, Amy Ross/Flickr and Jesús Corrius/Flickr.