Bûche de Noël Cookies

These Bûche de Noël Cookies are a bite-sized take on everyone's favorite Christmas cake. They are fun to shape, decorate, and especially to eat. 

These cookies start with a shortbread-style dough, which is spread with a hazelnut filling and then rolled up before slicing and baking. They are topped with a chocolate ganache with a hint of hazelnut chocolate spread and then finished with cute little holly berry and leaves sprinkles. 

I made these cookies for a cookie exchange party and had to walk by them several times per day for a couple of days without even eating one! Fortunately, I still had a few ginger cookies, ube cookies, browned butter M&M cookies, and chocolate mint cookies left to satisfy the holiday cookie cravings. 

P.S. Be sure to bake the ends of the rolled dough that you'd normally discard. They're perfect for taste testing. 

Ingredients You Will Need:

These cookies have four components, the dough, the filling, and the ganache, plus the sprinkles. 

For the Dough: 

All-purpose flour, confectioners' sugar, salt, butter, egg, and vanilla paste. 

For the Filling: 

Chocolate hazelnut spread, such as Nutella, and hazelnut flour. For the hazelnut flour, I peeled and ground some hazelnuts (also know as filberts) I found in my freezer to make the hazelnut flour. You don't need a lot of hazelnut flour. If you can't find it and don't feel like making your own, you can substitute another nut flour such as almond flour. 

Note: If all you can find are hazelnuts that still need to be peeled, you can blanche them by boiling them in water with baking soda for a couple of minutes and then plunging them in ice water. They should be easy to peel at that point. It's still annoying! Buying blanched hazelnuts and grinding them in a food processor or buying hazelnut flour is much easier. 

For the Ganache:

Semi-sweet chocolate, hazelnut chocolate spread, heavy cream, and butter. 

For the Sprinkles:

I used some really cute holly berries and leaves sprinkles for decorating these cookies. You could also lightly sprinkle them with some confectioners' sugar to look like a dusting of snow. 

To Make These Cookies:

First, combine the dough ingredients in a food processor. Divide the dough in half and then form each half into a rectangle. Chill the dough for at least two hours in the refrigerator. 

When the dough is ready, roll it out into two long rectangles, about 6 inches by 16 inches. Spread each rectangle with the chocolate hazelnut filling and then roll each up into a 16 inch log. At this point, freeze the dough logs for at least an hour. 

When you are ready to bake the cookies, slice each dough log into 1 3/4 inch lengths and bake the cookies in a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes. 

Finally, when the cookies have cooled, dip them in the ganache, drag the tines of a fork on the ganache to resemble bark, and then decorate with the sprinkles. Let the ganache solidify. 

Equipment You May Need:

Sheets of Parchment Paper: I rolled out the dough between layers of the parchment paper. It's super helpful for preventing sticking. Plus, you can use the same parchment paper for wrapping up the dough log for freezing as well as for baking the cookies and dipping the cookies in the ganache. I always keep pre-cut sheets from King Arthur Baking on hand. 

Food Processor: For blending the dough. It's great for incorporating the butter into the flour and then adding the egg and pulsing just a few times to create the dough. 

Tips for Success:

Make sure your oven is fully preheated. It's sometimes a good idea to use an oven thermometer just to make sure that the cookies bake properly. 

I also like to bake the cookies one baking sheet at a time so that I do not need to open the oven to rotate the baking sheets. The cookies, while baking, will widen a little and grow while baking, but you don't want the cookies to totally lose their shape and flatten in the oven. 

Storage: 

These cookies can be kept up to a week in an airtight container. 

You will have extra ganache left over after dipping the cookies. You can use it for other cookies, frosting cupcakes, frosting brownies, making chocolate truffles, or making homemade Ding Dongs. 

Christmas Cookies Week: 

If you are looking for more Christmas cookie recipes, you're in luck! This week we shared over 40 new Christmas cookie recipes. Stop by my posts for the last five days and check the links to everyone's cookies to see if there's a new recipe you'd like to try. 

• Raspberry Cream Cheese Crescent Cookies by Blogghetti
• Almond Cherry Snowballs by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Pizzicati- Italian Pinch Cookies by Jolene's Recipe Journal
• Reindeer Cocoa Iced Molasses Spice Cookies by Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice
• Tutti Fruity Cookies by Magical Ingredients
• Lemon Ginger White Chocolate Chip Cookies by A Kitchen Hoor's Adventures
• Norwegian Krumkake by Art of Natural Living
• Bûche de Noël Cookies by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Peanut Butter Blossoms by Hezzi-D's Recipe Box

 

Bûche de Noël Cookies

Yield: 18 cookies

Author: Karen Kerr

Prep time: 30 MinCook time: 20 MinInactive time: 3 HourTotal time: 3 H & 50 M

These Bûche de Noël Cookies are a bite-sized take on everyone's favorite Christmas cake. They are fun to shape, decorate, and especially to eat. 

Ingredients

Dough

• 2 cups (250 grams) all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup (90 grams) confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract

Filling

• 1/3 cup (145 grams) hazelnut chocolate spread (such as Nutella)
• 1/3 cup (32 grams) hazelnut flour

Ganache

• 4 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 1/4 cup (73 grams) hazelnut chocolate spread
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• Holly sprinkles for garnish

Instructions

1. In the bowl of a food processor, process the flour, confectioners' sugar, and salt.
2. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture is crumbly.
3. Add the egg and vanilla and process until a dough forms. Remove the dough from the food processor, divide it in half, and press each half into a 5 inch by 5 inch rectangle. Wrap each half in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours and up to overnight.
4. Combine the filling ingredients and set aside.
5. Roll each dough half between two pieces of parchment paper into a 6 inch by 16 inch rectangle. Spread each rectangle with half of the filling, leaving a half inch border on one long side.
6. Tightly roll up the dough to form a 16 inch log, ending with the border. Wrap the logs in parchment paper and freeze for at least an hour.
7. When ready to bake, heat the oven to 350 degrees F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Trim the ends off of each log and cut each log into nine 1 3/4 inch smaller logs. Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, for 17 to 20 minutes. Cool on the pans for 5 minutes and then cool completely on a wire rack.
8. To prepare the ganache, mix all of the ingredients in a small bowl and microwave in 30 second bursts, stirring in between. It is ready when it is smooth and thoroughly combined.
9. Dip the tops of each "log" in the ganache and place them on a parchment lined baking sheet.Use the tines of a fork to resemble bark. Decorate with holly sprinkles. Let the ganache thoroughly set.
10. Optional: Sprinkle lightly with confectioners' sugar before serving.

Nutrition Facts

Calories

186

Fat (grams)

11 g

Sat. Fat (grams)

7 g

Carbs (grams)

20 g

Fiber (grams)

1 g

Net carbs

19 g

Sugar (grams)

8 g

Protein (grams)

2 g

Cholesterol (grams)

31 mg

https://www.karenskitchenstories.com/2025/12/buche-de-noel-cookies.html

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Adapted from Bake from Scratch Holiday Cookies, 2025.