Brazo de Reina (Dulce de Leche Swiss Roll)

Ingredients:

For The Cake:
5 large eggs, separated
½ tsp salt
50g sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
120g unbleached plain flour, sifted
2 tsp baking powder

For The Filling
375g dulce de leche (or use a tin or jar)

Method:

Pre-heat your oven to 180°C. Grease a 30 x 45cm deep baking tray and line with parchment paper. Grease the parchment paper.

Transfer the eggs to a clean and dry bowl. With an electric hand mixer, beat the egg whites until foamy. Add the salt and continue beating until you have stiff peaks when you turn off the mixer and lift out the beaters. Set aside.

In another large bowl, beat the egg yolks until pale. Gradually add the sugar and vanilla extract, beating well to combine.

Sift together the already sifted flour and the baking powder into a small bowl. This flour mixture needs to be very light and airy when it gets mixed with the egg yolks).

Add the flour mixture to the egg yolks and gently mix with a spatula. (Your batter will appear a little stiff at this point.)

Gently fold the beaten egg whites into the flour and egg yolk mixture, adding 1/4 of the beaten egg whites at a time and folding with each addition until just incorporated.

Spread the resultant batter evenly over the parchment paper lined baking tray.

Transfer to the centre of your pre-heated oven and bake for 9-12 minutes, until the cake is springy to the touch and lightly golden. Keep an eye on the cake as it can cook quickly, so make sure it does not burn.

Remove the cake from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes.

Using a sharp knife, gently loosen the edges of the cake that might be stuck to the baking tray. Dust the cake with powdered sugar (to prevent sticking), then place a clean tea towel over the cake, so you have some extra towel hanging off of one of the short ends of the cake. Place a second cooling rack, upside down, on top of the tea towel and invert the cake onto the second cooling rack (and tea towel). Remove the baking tray and gently un-peel the parchment paper from the cake.

Flip the extra towel over the short end of the cake and gently roll the cake up from the short end.

Place the towel-wrapped, rolled cake on a wire rack to cool completely (1-2 hours).

Once the cake is cool, carefully unroll it. Spread the dulce de leche over the cake. Re-roll the cake and place it on a serving platter.

If desired, you can dust the finished cake with powdered sugar immediately before serving.