Brazo de Reina from Chile

Today I am taking part in the German blogger event called kulinarische Weltreise (culinary travels troughout the world). Today’s stop: Chile. I knew immediately what I wanted to make. Brazo de reina! This literally translates as a “queen’s arm”.  More commonly known as a Swiss roll or sponge roll. What distinguishes the Chilean roll from others is the filling. Manjar, or often known as dulce de leche, is a caramel made from sweetened milk. I do understand why you would think of a queen when you prepare this, this caramel definitely has some royal characteristics. So be pepared for a light and fluffy roll filled with sweet and delicious caramel spread.

As a huge fan of sponge rolls, I decided to make a version containing oil. I had not tried that yet. For this I used the recipe from Michelle from  the American blog sift and simmer. The roll worked out perfectly (I guess I do know how to make one by now). If you have questions about how to work with sponge rolls or cakes, this blog post may help. Michelle’s recipe is for a smaller roll for about six to seven pieces, which is perfect for my husband and me. However, when I prepared the filling, I made two mistakes. I thought that the caramel straight from the can would not be spreadable and thus a) thinned it out with milk and b) thought mixing it with a mixer would be a good idea. Nope, and nope. Even after one hour of chilling the filling was too thin, somehow the sugar crystalized, it was a mess.

I normally don’t mind and will give it as many tries as it needs before I present it on this blog. However, there were two reasons why I decided to post the recipe before having taken perfect pictures from the roll. First, I had a deadline, the last possible date to publish a Chilean recipe was March 26th. Normally not a problem. But then I got sick; soar throat, feverish, I first had to rest and stay in bed for a few days. And then, you know, my husband is currently dieting so asked me to cut back on providing sweets. So I couldn’t just make a new one right away, but had to wait until we had guests coming. But finally, I did get the chance to make another roll, so I was able to update the pictures and also was sure that the instructions were clear and would work. I hope you enjoy this roll from Chile as much as we did.

Credit: Sponge roll from sift and simmer

Print Recipe

Brazo de Reina from Chile

Serves: One small Swiss roll with about six pieces

Prep Time: 30min – Cooking Time: 15min – Total Time: 45min

The Chilean brazo de reina is similar to a Swiss roll. Main difference: the filling, manjar or often known as dulce de leche is made from sweetened milk.

Ingredients

• Swiss Roll
• 3 eggs, divided into two bowls
• 30 grams of regular sugar
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 30 grams of neutral oil
• 30 grams of milk
• 60 grams of cake flour
• 30 grams of regular sugar
• 
  
• Filling
• 400 grams of manjar (also known as dulce de leche), this is caramel made from sweetened milk, how to make it yourself, I explain in this blog post
• Icing sugar for dusting

Instructions

1

In this reel you can watch how I make it. For the Swiss roll either line a baking sheet with parchment paper if you are OK spreading a rectangle on about half of it (I measure out my rectangle on the parchment paper) or use a half sheet of 25x35cm. Preheat oven to 190 degrees Celsius. Then whisk together egg yolks, sugar, vanilla extract, oil and milk in a large bowl. Sieve the flour on top and whisk until you see no lumps. Set aside.

2

Beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until soft peaks form. Then add the sugar and beat on high until you get a stiff and shiny meringue. Add one third of it to the egg yolk mix and stir. Add the second third and fold under carefully. For the last third be sure to keep as much air as possible inside and only fold in, do not stir. How this is done best, can be seen in this little video. Bake for about 12-14 minutes or until golden. Meanwhile spray a tea towel with some water. When you take out the roll, put on the tea towel, making sure the parchment paper is on top. Carefully take off the parchment paper and immediately roll, using the short side to a roll (yes, you roll it with the tea towel). Let cool.

3

Once the roll has cooled off, spread about 2/3 of manjar filling on the rolled-out Swiss roll. Just leave a small rim on the smaller end. Roll up the roll again, try to do this as tightly as possible. You can use the tea towel to help you with it. Once fulled rolled, wrap and chill in the fridge at least for half an hour or overnight. Transfer the remaining third of filling into a piping bag with a star tip. Shortly before serving dust the roll with icing sugar and pipe little circles of manjar on the top.