Brazo de Mercedes made easy!

It's big ,it's pale and sagging and it's wobbly. Ok, perhaps I have to rename this recipe to Brazo de Emily and no I don't mean this:

I'm talking about something more appetizing than that!

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I'm talking about this !

We have to give it to the Pinoys, our love for tongue in cheek names when it comes to food is simply stupendous if not lewd. Take for example the ''Adidas'' and no, it ain't German. It actually refers to chicken feet which is marinated, grilled and gnawed with beer. The  ''Betamax'', and no it's not the modern Blu Ray's forefather in the 80s but coagulated animal blood which is cubed and also grilled. Now,  how did we end up naming a calorie laden dessert after a woman's superior limb is beyond me. And who in the name of Zeus is Mercedes? A loving lola, a grunchy tiya,  a sugar addicted dalaga ? The possibilities  are endless. Who named this recipe after her? A reminisching apo, ditched boyfriend, jealous girlfriend? And why does it have to be named  after a woman in the first place? Why not call it, Pata de Marcelo or something?  For once, google seemed to fail me, this one remains a mystery. If food or pastry could get this delicious, I  wouldn't mind sharing my name, all of the sake of gastronimic delight.





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Brazo de Emily Recipe (^_°)

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Step 1: Make The Custard Filling

Heat 250 ml of fresh milk and 200 ml sweetened condense milk in a saucepan. If you like to make your custard sweeter and if your sugar demand is higher,  you can use the whole can ( 400 ml) of condense milk. Bring to a boil while stirring.Once the milk reaches scalding point, take the saucepan out of the heat and stir in 1 teaspoon of vanilla paste.



Wow that's a lot of dead and unhatched chicken in one recipe!

Separate 10 ( yes 10! ) eggwhites and egg yolks. Put the egg yolks in a heat proof mixing bowl and add in 50 g of white sugar. Whisk until pale and thick.

Slowly add hot milk mixture into the beaten eggyolks while whisking constantly. Do not add all the hot liquid at once to avoid ''cooking'' the eggyolks, it will render a curdy custard.  Place mixing bowl  over a pot of simmering water. Stir using a wooden spoon.

Looking lickelicious!

The custard thickens as it cooks and thicker still as cools. Once it reaches a spreadable consistency, take it out from the water bath and set aside to cool. Try to keep your handsoff it. It's not Nutella! Although it tasted quite as delicious on a piece of toast.Hehe

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Step 2. Make the meringue roll

Using an electric mixer, beat the 10 egg whites and 1/2 teaspoon of cream of tartar until just frothy. Then gradualy add in 120 g of white sugar until a soft peak is formed. Keep the whisk rolling until eggwhites is stiff and shiny but try not to overbeat it.

Line a baking pan with parchment paper. Grease or lightly butter it to avoid maringue from sticking to it once baked. Transfer meringue into the prepared pan and spread evenly.

To give the roll its characteristic ridges, run a serrated scraper or knife over it. Baked meringue in a preheated oven at 120°C for 30-40 minutes or until it turns wonderfully brown. Once done, take it out from the oven and let it cool for about 10 minutes before moving on to the next step.




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Step 3: Assemble the cake. Hurrah!

Run a thin knife around the edges of the pan to loosen the meringue. Dust meringue with powder sugar until well coated. The good thing about this recipe is, it  keeps you on high sugar level ,enabling you to hop around the house for hours like an  energy bunny.

Cover the Meringue with parchment paper..

Put a cookie pan or flat baking pan over it.

Turn the baking pan upside down and peel the parchment baking covering the maringue.Let it cool for few minutes.

Spread cold vanilla custard over the meringue but leave some space at the adges.

Roll tightly. Easily said than done. I was trying to roll the cake while taking some pictures. Looks like multi tasking and roulades don't go well together. My rolled cake end up looking rather flat. Emily vs. Rolled cake, rolled cake wiiiins! Thankfully, my brazo tasted way delicious than it looks!

Oh no, not that!

 I mean this!

Want my brazo?