Where to Get a Bûche de Noël in NYC
There’s something about the dessert at the end of an incredible meal that always feels a little bittersweet (pun not initially intended): The meal isn’t over yet, but it was so good, and it’s almost over, and you don’t want it to end!
That gratified melancholy can seem so amplified on Christmas, the last holiday of the year, leading us to put massive stock into the quality of the meal, especially as it’s ending and you wish it weren’t—making the stakes for dessert on Christmas very high.
For this reason I’m of the opinion that the bûche de Noël—a showstopping creation made of sponge cake that’s flattened and layered with cream or ganache then rolled into a sweet roulade and decorated meticulously, usually to resemble a woodsy winter wonderland—is the quintessential Christmas dessert.
Also known as the Yule log because of its supposed genesis as a European pagan harvest ritual during the Yuletide season, the bûche de Noël as a dessert is believed to have originated in Medieval Europe sometime around the 17th century, before being popularized by the French in the 1900s. It eventually grew in popularity throughout Western Europe as well as in regions colonized by France, like Canada and Lebanon, which has made space for many delicious and exquisite interpretations in the decades since.