Frozen Brazo vs. Brazo Bars

Frozen Brazo: Graham crust, vanilla ice cream, lemon-flavored custard creme, soft meringue

The battle of the brazos.  Arm wrestling, if you want.  Originally called Brazo de Mercedes, this popular Filipino dessert has taken different forms in recent years.  And although the traditional rolled meringue with custard creme is very much alive, new varieties like brazo bars, frozen brazo and flavored brazos are getting much attention too.  I have made brazo de mercedes before but I've always wanted to try prettier versions of this yummy dessert.  Plus the fact that this dessert has a funny name-- brazo is arm in Spanish and Mercedes being a Spanish name, one can only imagine a wrinkled arm of an old Senora or a fat abuela.  Those are way better than Brazo de Madonna, in my opinion.  I just hope all my name-calling now won't catch up with me in my twilight years and have my grandchildren making Brazo de Tetetmum, yikes.  This is all for fun, you know.  And if they do that, I'd be thrilled to pose for them so they can create a good replica of my arms, lol.

Brazo Bars: Lemon custard creme sandwiched between soft meringue

This is my cake to toast my new 3 hours of free time since Nanawu is going to school.  I thought we'd be taking things slowly - 1 hour sessions for the first week in school.   But he adjusted very well, such that on his second day, we went for 2 hours.  And on his third day, we're doing 3 full hours already.  I always stay for a while to make sure he's okay, well it's true what they say about parents being more nervous than the child.  The day I made this, I got 1 hour to spare.  Yep, I made two different versions of brazos in under 1 hour!  That's in between peeking inside the classroom, grocery shopping, and back to peeking.  This is the recipe that I used and have always used, although I always half the recipe so that we would always end up looking forward to the next brazo moment, and not end up swearing never to eat it for a very long time. 

Meringue (full recipe):

10 egg whites

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

3/4 cup sugar

Beat egg whites and cream of tartar until soft peaks form.  Make sure your bowl is absolutely clean and dry.  Add sugar gradually until stiff peaks.  Do not overbeat the egg whites.  It should be stiff but still shiny.   Spread the meringue in a baking sheet lined with greased wax paper and bake in a preheated oven (350 F) for about 20 minutes or until the tops turn a golden brown.  After taking it out of the oven, brush the meringue with melted butter then run a knife under the it to release the meringue.  Expect the meringue to deflate.

Custard Creme (full recipe):

10 egg yolks

1 1/4 cup condensed milk (I always use less, taste-add taste-add)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Drops of lemon or lime juice

Combine egg yolks and condensed milk in a pan and place over low heat, whisking constantly.  Remove from heat when it thickens (coating the back of a spoon nicely).  Stir in vanilla and lemon and place the pan in a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking.  If you're not satisfied with the consistency, you can always put it back over the heat.

Assembly for Regular Brazo Bars:

Sandwich the custard creme between two sheets of meringue.  Sprinkle with confectioner's sugar for lovely appearance.  

Assembly for Frozen Brazo:

Layer graham cookie crust, vanilla ice cream and ground almonds (optional)-- may be made ahead and stored in the freezer.  Add custard creme over ice cream or ground almonds, sprinkle with shaved almonds (optional) for some crunch, and top with meringue sheet.  Place it back in the freezer.  Sprinkle confectioner's sugar right before serving.  

Tips:

• To decorate the meringue with ridges, run a fork over its length before baking it.  
• Soft/Stiff peaks, what do they mean? Find out here.  
• For easier slicing of frozen brazo, rinse knife with hot water and wipe it with every slice.  
• Graham crust: combine  ~8 pcs graham crackers- crushed, 1/4 cup melted butter (1/2 cup for harder base), 2 tablespoons sugar.  Or use ready-made graham crust like I did!  Combine and pack at the bottom of a dish.

So who won?  Of course the frozen brazo wins.  She won for texture.  Crunchy, smooth, creamy, cold and foamy (meringue).  And she won for taste.  Dreyers ice cream, cookie base, lemony custard, what more can you wish for?   It's a melt-in-your mouth goodness you shouldn't miss.