Broas

Dry sponge fingers baked twice, so they snap instead of bending.

Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg.

Ingredients

• 4 egg whites
• 4 egg yolks
• 150 g caster sugar
• 120 g plain flour, sifted
• 0.25 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons icing sugar, for dusting

Method

1. PIPED IN FINGERS 8 cm long, with a 1 cm plain nozzle, well apart on lined trays. Spooned instead of piped they spread into rounds and bake unevenly, thick in the middle and burnt at the rim.
2. Whisk the whites with the salt to soft peaks, then add half the sugar a spoonful at a time until the meringue is stiff and glossy.
3. Beat the yolks with the other half of the sugar for 4 minutes, until pale and thick enough to leave a trail.
4. Fold the yolks into the meringue in three goes, with a spatula, cutting down and lifting over. Stirred, the air goes and they bake flat.
5. Sift the flour over in two goes and fold the same way. Stop the moment there is no dry flour left.
6. Pipe, dust with icing sugar, and leave them 5 minutes so the sugar draws a thin skin. That skin is what cracks prettily in the oven.
7. Bake at 170C for 12 minutes, until pale gold and dry on top.
8. SECOND BAKE: turn the oven down to 120C, return them for 20 minutes, then switch it off and leave them inside with the door ajar until cold. One bake gives you a soft sponge finger; this gives you one that snaps.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Philippines · All recipes