The best wine and liqueur pairings for a chocolate yule log

A chocolate yule log or ‘buche de Noël has become an increasingly popular dessert at Christmas but what kind of wine should you pair with it?

As usual with chocolate it depends how intense the flavour is and what the log is filled with.

A simple shop-bought log filled with whipped cream or a light buttercream doesn’t need as powerful a wine as a rich home-made one with, say, a chestnut filling.

You may of course feel that a sweet wine is over the top with something that’s already incredibly sweet and that you’d rather have a cup of black coffee or tea with it. But it is Christmas and I suspect most of you probably won’t!

Here’s what I’d suggest:

* For a shop-bought log I’d go for a Brachetto d’Acqui - a sweet, gently fizzy Italian red wine that isn’t too high in alcohol. If you’re serving it with fresh berries you could even serve a sparkling rosé or rosé champagne

* With a slightly richer homemade log with a chocolate cream filling you could try a stronger sweet red wine such as a recioto della Valpolicella, Maury or a black muscat like Elysium. If it’s flled with boozy cherries try a vintage character or late bottled vintage port.

* With a log with orange in the sponge or filling like this chocolate and clementine log try an orange muscat, Passito di Pantelleria, a lovely marmaladey dessert wine from an island off the coast of Sicily or a South African straw wine. Or you could serve an iced shot of Cointreau

* With a rich chocolate and chestnut yule log like this rather delicious-sounding version from Felicity Cloake I’d go for a dark cream sherry or sweet oloroso sherry, sweet madeira or Australian liqueur muscat

* If there are nuts or Nutella on or in your log as in this recipe try a tawny port or, if it includes almonds, a glass of amaretto.

What I personally wouldn’t go for:

Sauternes or similarly citrussy dessert wines - simply because I’d rather have orange flavours than lemony ones with chocolate. Ordinary non-vintage champagne because it’s too dry (though a demi-sec champagne would be fine with lighter recipes) and Asti because it’s a bit too light. But if you disagree go for it!

What other drinks have you enjoyed with a Yule log?

You may also find these other suggestions for what to drink with Christmas desserts useful:

Wine matches for Christmas pudding

Wine matches for mince pies

Wine matches for trifle

Photo © noirchocolate - Fotolia.com

8 great food pairings for stout and porter

Although there are obviously differences between the two types of beer, dark stouts and porters tend to pair with similar types of food. Here are my top matches ...

Oysters and Guinness is one of the beer world’s classic pairings only bettered in my experience by an oyster rarebit. A creamy chowder with oysters and scallops is also great with a lighter stout

Dark beefy or venison stews like my recipe for braised beef with port and porter. Ox cheeks, ox tail all love stouts and porters

Steak pies such as this steak and stilton pie I enjoyed with a London porter or a hot game pie

Boiled bacon and cabbage - a classic St Patrick’s Day pairing with a smooth dark creamy Irish stout. Mmmm.

American-style barbecue especially BBQd ribs or smoked brisket - one for an American-style porter - even a smoked one if you want to layer on some extra smokey flavour.

Stilton and similar mellow blue cheeses - porter works in the same way as port: a strong dark contrast. Brilliant.

Dark chocolate cakes and desserts - If you don’t have a very sweet tooth and enjoy black coffee with your chocolate you’ll enjoy a porter too. A stronger, sweeter imperial stout is arguably better still. Especially with brownies.

Vanilla ice cream - Imperial stout and ice cream makes a great float. Here’s Garrett Oliver’s Imperial Stout Float from the Brooklyn Brewery

If you found this post useful you may also enjoy:

Food pairings for witbiers

Food pairings for hefeweizen and other German-style wheat beers

5 great matches for IPA

Image © bbourdages - Fotolia.com

Best pairings with sticky toffee pudding

One of the all-time favourite British desserts sticky toffee pudding is super-sweet so will overwhelm most wines you might think of pairing with it so what should you choose?

Your best bet is a sweet fortified wine like tawny port, sherry or Madeira, a beer (believe it or not!) or a whisky liqueur.

* An Australian liqueur muscat has similar toffeed flavours but you might find it just a bit too much of a good thing.

* The same goes for a sweet oloroso or cream sherry. Yummy though. One producer, Barbadillo, even produced a Sticky Pudding Wine.

* You could try a 10 year old tawny port which will be slightly nuttier. Some are sweeter than others.

* I have had (well-chilled) Canadian ice wine with STP. Amazing.

* And great suggestion from The Lemon Tree in Bishop's Stortford: Vin Santo. Haven't tried it but am sure it would work.

* For those who don’t have such a sweet tooth a ginger flavoured beer like Blandford’s Ginger Fly can be a delicious match.

* Or try a ginger wine or liqueur - either on its own or served as a Whisky Mac

* Or, if you fancy something a bit stronger, a nip of Drambuie or other whisky liqueur, a cognac or an armagnac.

Image copyright: HLphoto - Fotolia.com

What wine to pair with a custard tart

My assertion that custard tarts are the new cupcakes provoked such a heated exchange that I thought I’d stoke the fire by suggesting what you drink with ‘em.

By custard tarts of course I’m not referring to the traditional British version known up north as a ‘custard’ with which it would be wrong to drink anything but a strong cup of tea (with at least one sugar) but the much sexier Portuguese version now seen all over London and bakeries throughout the UK.

I reckon there are two ways to go depending on your mood and the time of day.

For a morning tart (there is something slightly risqué about that phrase) I reckon it should be coffee, preferably black

For an afternoon or evening tart, a small glass of strong, sweet wine. Port would be the obvious option, given the origins of the tart (tawny rather than ruby, I’d suggest) but other sweet wines such as oloroso or cream sherry, similar styles of montilla, malaga, madeira and orangey moscatels would be great too. (Whatever you have to hand - and if you don’t, you should. Sweet sherry is an incredible bargain.)

Posh creamy custard tarts of the kind admirably crafted by St John (and, happily nearer to home, Sam Leach of Birch in Bristol) could take a dessert wine such as a Sauternes or a lighter moscatel.