KO EN Brazilian Dessert⏱ 70 minEdit history

Bolo de Rolo (Guava Roll Cake of Paper-Thin Layers)

Name: Bolo de Rolo (Guava Roll Cake of Paper-Thin Layers)
Prep time: 40 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 1 h 10 min
Yield: 12 servings
Cuisine: Brazilian
Ingredients: 200 g butter; 200 g sugar; 6 eggs; 200 g plain flour; 1 pinch salt; 350 g goiabada (guava paste); 80 ml water; 4 tbsp sugar

Brazil's roll cake: butter sponge spread paper-thin and baked, brushed with melted goiabada (guava paste), and rolled tight, sheet after sheet, until the cut face shows dozens of thin layers in a spiral. The sheets have to be thin enough to count and still bend rather than crack, and the goiabada is melted to spread and then sets again in the fridge to hold the layers together.

Steps

Chop the goiabada and melt it with the water over a low heat, stirring, until it is soft enough to spread. Take it off the heat and keep it warm.
⏲ 5 min
Heat the oven to 200°C. Line two 30x40cm trays with baking paper.
Beat the butter and sugar 4 minutes until pale and light. Beat in the yolks one at a time.
⏲ 4 min
Whisk the whites with the salt to soft peaks. Stir a third into the butter mixture, then fold in the rest of the whites and the flour alternately in two goes.
⏲ 5 min
Divide the batter into five. Spread one portion 2mm thick and even over a tray — thin enough to see through.
Bake 5-6 minutes only: out when the edges are just turning gold and the middle has no colour. Overbaked, it breaks when you roll it.
⏲ 5 min 30 sec
Turn the sheet out onto a clean cloth sprinkled with sugar and peel off the paper. While it is warm, spread it thinly with goiabada and roll it tightly from a long side.
Bake the next sheet the same way, spread it, set the first roll at its edge and keep rolling. Repeat until the batter is used up.
⏲ 5 min 30 sec
Roll the finished log in sugar, wrap it and chill 2 hours or more to set. Slice thin to serve.
⏲ 120 min

Tips & Variations

Variations

Instead of goiabada: Korean Wikipedia defines the cake as one filled with goiabada. Another fruit paste works the same way, but it is not quite this dish.
Making the goiabada first: most people buy it, but home-made goiabada stopped a little early, at the spoonable stage, spreads without melting.
How many sheets: thinner and more sheets mean more layers on the cut face. This recipe makes five.
Chocolate-covered: some shops coat it in chocolate and serve it with ice cream. This page is the plain, sugar-coated one.

Tips

Thin layers are the cake. Korean Wikipedia defines bolo de rolo by its very thin layers. So each sheet is spread 2mm thick, thin enough to see through.
A thin sheet needs a short bake. Dobos torte bakes the same kind of thin sheet and names the failure: "longer and they become dry biscuits that crack as they cool". A Dobos stacks its sheets flat and can live with that; a sheet that has to be rolled is finished the moment it cracks. Take it out before the middle colours.
Roll it warm. The rule cooking eggs gives for gyeranmari holds here: "each layer has to be rolled before it fully sets, or the layers will not bond." A cold sheet does not bend, and the layers do not hold to each other.
The goiabada sets twice. Goiabada is pectin set while still holding its water, so warmed with a little water it loosens enough to spread, and in the fridge it sets again. That is the order the encyclopaedia gives — melt, spread, roll, chill — and the second set is the glue that holds the layers.
The whites carry most of the lift. There is no baking powder: the air comes from the creamed butter and the folded whites. Dobos torte, whose sponge has no butter at all, says "The meringue bubbles are the only lift" — here they are not the only lift, but they are the larger share, so fold the whites in; do not beat them in.
Slice it cold. An under-set roll squashes under the knife and the layers smear. Chill it two hours or more and cut with a knife dipped in hot water and wiped.