Chilean Recipies

Pan Amasado    (Best bread EVER!) :)
Ingredients:

3 cups warm water
1 Tbsp salt
1 Tbsp dry yeast
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 tsp sugar
6-7 cups flour


In 1 cup of warm water dissolve the sugar and the yeast and leave them to soak for 10 minutes. Dissolve the salt in the remaining two cups of warm water.

Staring with 6 cups of flour, pour them out and make a hole in the center with your fist where you will then pour (while mixing it with a spoon) the melted butter and the cup of warm water holding the salt, sugar, and yeast. Knead the dough until it becomes moist and elastic like. Be careful not to knead it too much. It should take about 5 min or less.

Pull off portions about the size of a lemon and form them into a ball. Then pat the bread on both sides between your two hands until it has a thickness of about a centimeter. Place them on a floured pan and poke each ball about 5 times with a fork. Next place them in a warm place where they can rise. (About 45 min)

Preheat the oven to 400°F and bake for 20 min (or until they are firm.)

Enjoy!

Brazo de Reina    The Queens Arm


4 eggs
¾ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
¾ cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
¾ cup flour
Powdered sugar
two cans of manjar/ dulce de leche (You can find it at some Walmarts in the Hispanic food section. But if you can't find it then you can use two small cans of Sweetened condensed milk. and boil the cans to make manjar.)


Preheat oven to 400º F.
Beat the eggs, (preferably with an electric mixer/beaters) with the salt and baking powder until it is foamy and the same color as a lemon.

Gradually add sugar. Add vanilla.

Now, with a spoon, carefully add the flour. Don't stir, but gently mix it in by turning the spoon from side to side. (If that makes sense) Try not to disturb the air bubbles in the eggs more than you must. You want to keep as many bubbles as you can so that the cake will rise and not come out flat and hard. Therefore, it is important to mix in the flour very carefully. This is the trickiest part of the recipe. The rest is easy. :)

Grease a 15 X 10 in pan, (or as close as you can get to it), and line it with wax paper. (Also greased) Next, pour in your batter.

Bake for 12 min or until the cake begins to be firm. (cake will be thin)

While you are waiting, sprinkle a tea towel with powdered sugar.

Pull out the cake and turn it over and onto the tea towel. Quickly remove the wax paper and cut off the hard edges of the cake. Starting from one of the short sides, roll the cake and towel together so that the towel is rolled inside the cake. (kind of like cinnamon rolls if that helps you visualize) Place the cake like this in the refrigerator.

Once it has cooled, unroll it and spread the manjar/ dulce de leche over the top of it. Then roll it up once more (without the towel this time) and then sprinkle it with powdered sugar. (As much as you want! :) MMM!!)

And that's it! Your cake is DONE! :) This is one of my FAVORITE Chilean desserts! :) I know the recipe sounds complicated, but if I can make it, then you for sure can!!! :)

If you couldn't find the manjar/ dulce de leche, then you can make it yourself, it just takes a while to cook so you might want to do it the day before and then refrigerate it so that it will be ready when you want it. :)

To make it, take your cans of sweetened condensed milk and put them in a pot of boiling water. (Covering the pans completely) Leave it in for about 2 hours. When you open the cans the milk should have thickened and become a caramel color. (You might try mixing it a little because sometimes the top doesn't turn brown but everything underneath it is done. :) So you can just mix it and you'll be fine.)
Another way of doing it that might be a little safer, (just because sometimes the pressure can make the can explode) is to partially open the cans before putting them in the pot so that the pressure has another way out rather than exploding. :) If you do it this way, only put enough water to boil the cans. :) You don't want all of your milk to leak out into the water. That wouldn't work.. :)

I want to try cooking it with water in a crock pot to see if that wouldn't work even better. :) I'll let you know. :)