Brazo de Mercedes
To my surprise, I came home today with a big log of Brazo de Mercedes and some Danish pastries that my wife had baked. It was a feast! And this post is about it. This dish is one of her specialties and this is frequently requested by friends and families when there is a gathering which means only one thing, this dessert is so good.
Warning this is only for those who have a sweet tooth! Brazo de Mercedes (A Spanish word for Mercedes’ arms) a popular Filipino dessert which is made from a sheet of soft meringue rolled around a custard filling. This is a common cake served during special occasions but we barely make them in the Philippines as it is easier and cheaper to buy in Goldilocks, the bakeshop which popularized it. Even if it’s given a Spanish name I guess it does not have any Spanish origin at all as I never had come across any meringue dishes from a Mediterranean cuisine similar to Brazo de Mercedes.
- 2 cups Condensed milk
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 10 egg yolks
- ¼ cup ground toasted cashew nuts
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 4 cups Full Cream milk
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 tbsp butter
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 10 egg yolks
- ¼ cup ground toasted cashew nuts
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 10 egg whites
- ¾ cup sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp cream of tartar
- Beat egg yolks in a bowl then set aside.
- In a saucepan combine together condensed milk, egg yolks, vanilla extract, cashew nuts and zest of lemon.
- Place in low heat and once they thicken (consistency should be like a paste) turn the heat off and let it cool.
- In a saucepan mix together milk and sugar, reduce mixture to 2 cups in very low heat. The final consistency should be like a condensed milk. Once consistency is thick add butter and mix well.
- Beat egg yolks in a bowl then set aside.
- In a saucepan combine together home made condensed milk, egg yolks, vanilla extract, cashew nuts and zest of lemon.
- Place in low heat and once they thicken (consistency should be like a paste) turn the heat off and let it cool.
- Preheat oven to 200C.
- Beat egg whites together with cream of tartar until stiff.
- Now gradually add 1 cup sugar while beating then stir in vanilla.
- Line a large cookie sheet with baking paper greased with butter.
- Spread meringue mixture on the top of the paper then bake until top is brown which about 10 minutes is.
- Have another greased baking tray ready again line with greased waxed paper. Invert the egg white meringue onto this waxed paper so that brown side is below.
- Spread filling on the egg white meringue then fold one side of the meringue and roll to form a log. Dust with icing sugar.
Please note I updated the recipe below to separate 2 versions of custard filling to avoid confusion.
As it’s so late here yet the picture looks delectable and the recipe sounds heavenly, maybe I should have this for *breakfast* and not wait for dessert!!
Seems like your wife have great cooking skills just like you Raymund but I can’t say the same about my hubby, the most is frying a egg or making instant noodles. You know I am not into so much of desserts but sure its look very nice and love the name of it all the more.
Ohhhhh it’s a meringue! I looked at the photo and was like, what IS that fluffy deliciousness? Looks fantastic!
It looks so good, I wanna cry. I wish our cook was good as you and your wife and could cook all the different food you post here everyday. That would be awesome!
This is so special and the meringue wraping makes it even more appetizing!
Oh, this is right up my alley. Beautiful and tempting.
Wow, this is so impressive – bet it tastes heavenly.
🙂 Mandy
i love brazo de mercedes… i have a question, your pictures are stored in wordpress media?? you never ran out of storage capacity??
Yes they are in WordPress and I still have a long way to go to fill up the limit, my images are sized only att an average of 500kb each.
I have a serious sweet tooth and this would no doubt be dangerous for me. It looks delicious! What a fun treat to come home to! 🙂
What a stunning dessert!
Like your blog. Can you please tell me the size of the sheet you use to bake the meringue?
25 x 40 cm
Oh my gosh, we always get it from Goldilocks – I don’t know why i never thought you could make it yourself. So tasty!
This looks like such a fun dessert! I definitely have a sweet tooth and love meringue. The name is funny!
Now you KNOW I have a sweet tooth! Please tell your wife she is so talented! This is a beautiful and delicious looking roll cake and I have never made one of those! It is so intimidating to me. I love how light and airy it looks and you are right, my friend, when something gets requested ALOT it certainly MUST be wonderful! Have a very happy holiday.
Yum, looks like a marriage of the filling of custard taarts and Pavlova… yum double yum!
MERRY CHRISTMAS to you and your family Raymund, I hope you have a fabulous day (The food from your kitchen will be excellent, of that I have no doubt). HUGS… kiwi 🙂
hi. I love your blog and I have made 3 so far from your recipes. I need help with this recipe. when I greased the wax paper with butter, the meringue kinda got stuck to the paper. also, is there a better way to spread the filling on top of the meringue because somehow, the filling wouldn’t spread easily…it’s like stuck to the spatula. what did I do wrong? thank you…
Removing the wax paper is really a tricky part, what we do is really gently and slowly remove it a bit of patience is needed here. As for the filling best is to do it while hot so its softer and easier to handle. Hope this helps, it took us lot of practice to perfect it.
Hi Jo, never had the problem. I used a greased baking sheet (the type it says no need to grease) then still put butter. It comes right off easily.
Oh how I love making pastries, specially brazo de mercedes. But i was so disappointed, everytime i roll the merengue, it always ends up broken! Please share me the technique so my brazo de mercedes would look perfectly like yours! Thanks and more power to your blogs.
Same here we still rip it off sometimes, I guess practice really makes it perfect. The only thing I can share is use a really good quality wax paper so it really does not stick and do everything carefully.
Hi
My meringue was flat, what was I’m going wrong?
Sorry what do you mean by flat? Is it less than an inch thick? If that’s the case the egg white was not beaten properly or some sort of grease or egg yolk contaminated the whites for it to properly fluff
I love brazo de Mercedes, and I tried it so many times but unfortunately mine was not a success, I will try your wife’s recipe and hopefully I could make a perfect cylindrical shape.thanks very much for this….., have a good day!
Hi, with this procedure 1. In a saucepan mix together milk and sugar, reduce mixture to 2 cups in very low heat. The final consistency should be like a condensed milk. Once consitency is thick add butter and mix well. — Do I let this mixture cool down?
Yes it is like you arr making ypur own condensed milk. Cooling is not really required but it will help and give you a more managable thick custard.
Thank you for your wife’s recipe! It was really good. 🙂 I used the full cream milk version so I can control the sweetness.. instead of 1 cup of sugar I just used 3/4 cup of sugar. Thank you again!
Glad to know you like it, thanks for trying it out
Hello how long does it last out of the fridge?
I am not really sure but the maximum days we experienced was 2, always finished it fast 🙂
Hi i was able to make this one twice already and rolled it perfectly but why is it that my meringue shrinks when i place it in the fridge? Thanks for the recipe
The fridge dries out all the liquid hence it shrinks, to prevent that place your Brazo in a container you can cover so liquid is not dehydrate while you are cooling them. If you cant find a big enough container we usually use cling wrap just drizzle powdered sugar on the surface so it does not stick to the meringue.
Even if it’s given a Spanish name I guess it does not have any Spanish origin at all as I never had come across any meringue dishes from a Mediterranean cuisine similar to Brazo de Mercedes.
>> I also thought that it is uniquely Pinoy, but I recently found out that meringue roulade is quite common in Europe. Some add berries and/or citrus.