[fatmad]

last week at a Christmas party, the caterer made a love chocolate pavlova as a yule log. Decided to try this as an experiment today. I made a small one, but I think its easily adaptable if you want to make it bigger. I used cocoa in the chocolate cream, and while the package says 2g carbs per tbsp, it also says 2g fibre. Can't quite believe it would be carb free tho.

So I made a merigue, used 4 egg whites with 3 pkgs splenda.
I placed this on a piece of parchment that had cooking spray on it. Made it a rectangle about 1 cm thick, (about a 1/3 inch)
placed in 300 degree over for about 10 min. the trick is that the meringue must be soft and flexible, but set.
I took it out, flipped it onto a clean tea towel and rolled it gently to cool.

Then I made whipped cream (about 1.5 cups) with a smidge of vanilla, and when the cream was almost whipped, started adding cocoa (about 4 tblsp) and splenda, took about 8 pkg splenda so it was sweet in spite of the cocoa. Had to add a little unwhipped cream to make it liquid enough to make sure the cocoa and splenda were whipped into it. (from experience, I know you can also add a little brandy or espresso in for more exotic flavours. )

I unrolled the meringue, and made a nice layer of chocolate cream in side, then rolled it like a jelly or cream roll. Used the rest of the choc cream on the outside and then scraped it into "bark" for my log. Can have some dark choc shavings and decorate with leaves. I did taste an end of it, and it was similar to what I had at the party, and quite yummy. Very rich, just a nice slice for a dessert, so the small one I made could serve 4-5 people I think.

For Christmas day I will do the same but with at least 8 egg whites. might take 10-12 in fact to make it truly jelly roll sized.

just thought I would share, as we struggle to get through the holidays without caving to carb cravings.