The Memories of a Cook - Ana Maria Soares da Silva

Ana Maria Soares da Silva

In its May 19th online edition, the Folha de S. Paulo's food section published a transcription of the oral memoirs of a certain Ana Maria Soares da Silva from Recife, Pernambuco. Ms. da Silva is a well-known food personality in Recife, and has long been celebrated for her bolo de rolo, Pernambuco's famous guava jelly-roll cake. (Click here for more on the bolo de rolo). Notoriously difficult to master, the bolo de rolo requires a skill that takes years to develop. Those who are considered to be bolo de rolo masters are local celebrities in Recife, and people serve their cakes with pride at family parties, anniversaries and important holidays.

A young and vigorous 90 years old, Ms. da Silva recounted her story to Folha reporter Luisa Fecarotta. Here is Flavors of Brazil's translation of her story:

On March 26, I turned 90 years old. I couldn't tell you for how many of those 90 years  I've been making bolo de rolo. I learned how to in the house of Dona Joaninha, from Joana another maid there. Dona Joaninha was married to a Portuguese man.

Joana made the cake by hand, always after lunch. She saved it wrapped up in a dishtowel and only served it the following day. Once, when Joana was sick, Dona Joaninha asked if I could make the cake for her. That was the day I made my first bolo de rolo alone.

Later I was the maid in the houses of other Portuguese families. Here, at the Casa dos Frios bakery, I started out by making bolo de rolo at night. I had finally left Mr. Amorim's, another Portuguese employer, and started working only here. I would work until midnight, completing orders for bolo de rolo.

It was like running a race. I'd beat the cake batter, pour it into the forms, and place them in the oven. I'd have to watch them all the time. Meanwhile I'd make another batch, then take the first batch out of the oven and put another batch in. Then while that batch was baking, I'd be spreading the guava jelly on the first batch and rolling it up.

I'd to this every day, using only a small hand-mixer and a wooden spoon to make the batter. The mixer seldom worked right, so I depended more on the wooden spoon. Today, I don't make bolo de rolo anymore. And I don't even like to eat it these days.

I grew up in the interior of Pernambuco state. On a plantation. I'd wake up very early, and have to walk three miles to reach the fields. I woke up so early, I don't even remember the time. In our cabin, my mother would cook beans, cuzcuz, cornmeal mush, manioc, potatoes. At Christmastime, she would kill a piglet for all of us to eat.

What I liked best was country-style beans with pumpkin, the way my grandma made them, with mustard leaves that are slightly bitter. Do you know mustard leaves? They're small, tough and bitter. Today, people people load up their beans with lots of everything, until there's no taste of anything. In my grandma's beans, she'd add just a little bit, and the taste was just right. I don't know why it tasted so good - maybe it's because kids have such sensitive palates, and later they begin to lose some of their sense of taste. Who knows?

Leaving the country for Recife was a spur-of-the moment thing. When we were working in the fields, we'd see the train pass by, and I'd say "Some day I'm going to be on that train." We said it as a joke, but one day I went to the market with my mother - she was selling tapioca there for a woman who was going to visit a sick sister in the city. The woman asked my mother if I could come to the city to help her take care of her sister. I was crazy with joy.

I got on the train to Recife on January 29th. I don't remember the year, but I remember the date. I got very homesick in Recife, but I said to myself, "I'm going to stay and I'm going to work hard. No one is going to say that I didn't know how to do anything right."

I've been working ever since. But cooking, you know, there's days you like it and days you don't like it. There's days you're inspired, and there's day your mind just shuts down and you don't know what to do. I've decided I don't want to cook anymore (laughs). Now I want people to cook for me (laughs again).

RECIPE - Bolo de Rolo

In the previous post, I mentioned that making a bolo de rolo at home is not anything for an amateur or a weekend cook to try. It involves making six sponge cakes of an extreme thinness and then rolling all of them together to create a roll of up to twenty layers - without the whole damn thing falling apart! As far as bolo de rolo goes, I'm a firm subscriber to the "don't try this at home" theory.

That being said, I'm including a recipe here at Flavors of Brazil for this iconic cake from Pernambuco state in the northeast of Brazil because it's interesting to know just how this cake is constructed, and because someone might just be fool enough to want to give it a try. Should they do so and succeed, I can guarantee the result with definitely impress even the most jaded dinner guest.

This cake cannot be made with three identical baking sheets of approximately 12x18x1 inch (30x45x2 cm). You will also need three large, clean kitchen towels of the same size or larger for turning out the cakes once they are baked.

So here goes....
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RECIPE - Bolo de Rolo

1/2 lb (250 gr.) unsalted butter, softened
6 oz. guava jelly (can substitute other jellies or jams)
6 whole eggs
1/2 lb. (250 gr.) cake flour
1/3 lb. (200 gr.) sugar
granulated sugar for dusting cakes
2 Tbsp. water or white wine for diluting the jam
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Using a whisk or egg beater, beat the sugar and butter together in a large bowl until you have a light, fluffy cream. Add the eggs, one by one, making sure that the yolks are skinless, beating the mixture after the addition of each egg.  Using a silicone spoon, add the cake flour in small quantities, gently folding in each addition until you have a fine, light batter. Reserve.

In a small saucepan, break up the jam or jelly with a fork, then place over low heat. Add the water or wine and heat, stirring continuously, until the mixture is melted. Reserve.

 Grease the three cake pans (see above) generously with unsalted butter and dust with cake flour. Using a wooden spoon spread 6 spoonfuls of the cake batter in each pan - one spoonful in each corner, and two in the middle of the pan. Using a silicone spatula, spread out the batter to cover the entire pan with a thin layer of batter.

One at a time, cook each cake in a preheated 350F degree oven for approximately 10 minutes. The cake must not color. Check for doneness by touching the surface of the cake with a fingertip. If the cake is firm, remove from oven, and turn the cake out onto a new or clean kitchen towel that has been generously dusted with granulated sugar. Repeat this process for the two remaining cakes.

Trim the edges of each cake to make them even. Spread a very thin layer of the jam or jelly across the entire surface of each of the three cakes, reaching all the way to the edges.

Using the kitchen towel to aid, roll the first cake into a tight roll, rolling from the shorter side of the rectangle. Carefully place the roll at the end of the second cake, and roll the second cake onto the first, starting where the first roll ended. Do the same with the third cake, rolling all three together tightly. Wrap the completed bolo de rolo in plastic wrap and reserve.

Wash and regrease the three cake pans, and repeat the spreading of 6 spoonfuls of batter in each pan. Bake each for approximately 10 minutes as before. Turn out onto the kitchen towels, having redusted them with sugar. Repeat the spreading of jam or jelly on the three new cakes. Remove the bolo de rolo from the plastic wrap, and continue to roll and construct the log. One you have a roll of all six cakes rolled together, place the finished product in plastic wrap, place in refrigerator until firm.

To serve, slice the roll across the layers into thin slices, place two slices on each plate, and top with whipped cream if desired.

Recipe translated and adapted from "Muito + Receitas"
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See what I mean? As the saying goes, this recipe sounds like "a piece of cake."

A Nun's Kiss and Other Olinda Treats

About 5 miles (8 km.) north of the city of Recife in Brazil's Pernambuco state lies the small historic city of Olinda. With its baroque architecture and cobblestone streets remarkably preserved, it's no wonder that it has been honored with inclusion in the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.

During the February Carnaval season, Olinda is loud, crowded, packed and crazy, but during the rest of the year it's a tranquil small town of artisans, musicians, visitors and retirees. Many of the local houses have been converted into pousadas (small inns or hotels) or restaurants. Others house art galleries or craft shops. Some come for a day's visit from Recife, some stay a week, and some visitors never leave.

One of Olinda's architectural highlight is the number of baroque religious buildings still in use- a cathedral, many churches, convents and monasteries. A large number of these convents and monasteries are cloistered, shut away from the world outside the front door. And, in a tradition that can be traced back to Portugal, many of these convents and monasteries are famous for their sweets and pastries. These can sometimes be bought at the door to the convent or monastery, but are also often offered up for sale in local bakeries and pastry shops.

The Convento dos Amarantes is known for its Pão de Ló (Bread from Lo), a sponge cake made with an extraordinary quantity of eggs. The Convento de Santa Maria das Celas makes a famous manjar branco (blancmange), and the Convento de Vila do Conde makes the intriguingly-named Beijo de Freira (Nun's Kiss) which is a small shortbread cookie flavored with coconut.

The most famous cake of Olinda is not associated with any particular convent, but is known all over Brazil as a treat from Pernambuco and is called bolo de rolo (rolled cake). This cake is rarely made at home due to the difficulty in working with the thin layers of cake and filling, but can be bought at pastry shops and even supermarkets everywhere in Brazil. It is what we might call in English a jelly-roll cake, but an extremely refined example of that genre. A super-thin layer of cake is spread with guava jelly, then rolled up. A well-made bolo de rolo might have up to twenty layers by the time it is fully rolled-up. Slices or entire rolls are sold, but it's always served sliced to show the delicate spiral of jelly, and often served with whipped cream (nata) on the side.

Those who have been reading Flavors of Brazil for a while might remember my posts about acarajé and how it's been accorded national status as an Immaterial National Treasure (click here to read more). In 2002 the legislature of Pernambuco state accorded similar status, though not on a national level, to the bolo de rolo, declaring it part of Pernambuco's cultural patrimony.

Although almost no one attempts to make a bolo de rolo at home, I'll provide a recipe in my next post, just for information's sake. The equipment required and the necessary skill in handling the cake are usually lacking in the home kitchen, but perhaps some reader of Flavors of Brazil will be crazy enough to make bolo de rolo at home.