Brazo de Gitano recipe

Who doesn’t like a bit of chocolate cake eh? This brazo de Gitano recipe is not unlike the Swiss Roll that many of us grew up with, though perhaps a bit lighter. It is chock full of calories though… so make sure you only eat lettuce leaves for a fortnight before and after. Oh yeah – and it’s flour free too!

Ingredients

• Six eggs, yolks separated
• 200 grams of good quality dark chocolate
• 100 grams of white sugar
• 200 millilitres of thick cream
• Two teaspoons of sweet sherry
• Butter for greasing the pan
• Icing sugar or cocoa powder for decoration (optional)

Method

• Preheat your oven to moderate (180 Celsius)
• Grease a 30 x 24 cm Swiss roll tin with butter – only lightly though
• Line it with greaseproof paper
• Mix the egg yolks and sugar in a bowl until pale and creamy
• Break the chocolate into pieces and place in a heatproof bowl
• Melt it gently by placing the bowl over a saucepan of boiling water. Don’t let the water touch the base of the bowl
• Stir it as it melts
• Once the chocolate is melted, fold it gently into the egg/sugar mix
• Using a whisk, mix the egg whites until soft peaks form
• Fold the egg whites into the chocolate mix – do it gently and don’t over mix it – you don’t want to lose that air
• Pour the mix into the Swiss roll pan and smooth out – keep it all gentle
• Bake for about 15 to 20 minutes
• Switch the heat off but leave the cake where it is for another ten minutes
• Remove from the oven and lay a sheet of baking paper over it, and then a damp tea towel, and then tip it upside down
• Set aside to cool – 20 to 30 minutes should do it
• While it is cooling, you can prepare the filling
• Whisk the cream and sherry together until it is quite firm
• Remove the tin and baking paper from the upside down cake and smear the cream all over it
• Now here’s the only tricky bit of the recipe – using the baking paper to lift the end, start rolling it over itself so it looks like a Swiss roll
• Sprinkle with the icing sugar or cocoa powder and serve

Spain Buddy tips

• Elle is allergic to coffee so we can’t… but apparently, if you pour in 100 millilitres of espresso to the chocolate when it is melting, it adds extra oomph
• Instead of using the cream filling… try swapping that for something else of a creamy texture. Dulce de leche is gorgeous!
• Swap the sherry for a liqueur of your choice… something like Cointreau always works well with chocolate… or perhaps Tia Maria… or Creme de Menthe
• If you’ve messed up the rolling part and it looks a bit scrappy… just melt another 100 grams of chocolate and pour it all over the top and stick a mint leave or something else decorative on it. Sliced strawberries hide a multitude of sins. To be honest, it will get wolfed pretty quickly – so don’t worry.

Elle Draper

Elle, along with Alan, is the owner of Spain Buddy and the busy web design business – Spain Web Design by Gandy-Draper.
Born a “Norverner”, she then spent most of her life “Dann Saff” before moving to Spain in 2006. Elle’s loves are Alan, the internet, dogs, good food, and dry white wine – although not necessarily in that order.