Description
A delicious, chocolate, fudge-like treat popular at Brazilan birthday parties.
Ingredients
- 1 can of sweetened condensed milk (15oz or 395g)
- 2 Tablespoons (30ml) of cocoa powder
- 2 Tablespoons (30ml) of your favorite chocolate milk powder
- 2 Tablespoons (30ml) of unsalted butter, plus more for buttering the cooling dish and your hands
- About 1 ½ cups (150ml) sprinkles, grated chocolate or other coating for rolling
- 30 small pleated paper cups or squares of parchment for serving
Instructions
- Butter a shallow porcelain dish that could hold a quart of liquid.
- Put the sweetened condensed milk, cocoa, chocolate milk powder and 2 tablespoons of butter in a heavy bottomed sauce pan over a low heat.
- Mix the ingredients with a wooden spoon continually over the heat for about 7 minutes, making sure that the mixture doesn’t burn. At about the 7 minute point, observe the mixture. It will start to darken and become very thick, making it more difficult to stir. You will start to see the bottom of the pan more clearly. When the mixture seems more like a dough and less like a batter, it starts to make a “schlack, schlack” noise, and it seems to come away from the pan easily, it is done. This should take about ten minutes cooking time. Remove from the heat and continue stirring the mixture for another minute to let it cool off evenly, avoiding the mixture from burning in the still hot pan.*
- Immediately transfer the mixture to the buttered dish and let cool.
- Put the sprinkles or other coating into a separate dish.
- To mold the brigadeiro into balls, take a teaspoonful of mixture and roll it between your buttered hands. Transfer the ball to the dish of sprinkles and roll it around to coat all sides. Transfer the ball to a pleated paper cup or square of parchment for serving. Keep in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
Notes
*About cooking time: See, that wasn’t so bad, and we didn’t even have to use a candy thermometer. If after the mixture is cooled, it is still not thick enough to roll, put it back in the pan and cook it some more. If the mixture has cooked too much, and has become a hard crystallized chocolate candy, I’m sorry, you don’t have brigadeiro, but you have a really, awesome harder chocolate fudge that melts in your mouth. Once I broke this into pieces and used it in the place of chips in a chocolate chip cookie recipe that caused howls of joy at my daughter’s school Christmas party.
To Make Spoon Brigadeiro or Brigadeiro de Colher
Makes about 30 tiny cups
2 cans of sweetened condensed milk (30oz or 790g)
4 Tablespoons (60ml) of cocoa powder
4 Tablespoons (60ml) of chocolate milk powder
4 Tablespoons (60ml) of unsalted butter
In a heavy-bottomed sauce pan combine all the ingredients. Heat the mixture stirring constantly for 7 minutes. Be careful not to burn the mixture. Remove from heat and continue stirring for another minute. If you wish to serve the spoon brigadeiro in a presentable way, transfer it immediately to a serving dish, or to tiny party cups. If you’re making it to share more intimately, let it cool in the pan. You’ll only be able to remove later with a lot of licking and scraping.
If you really love sprinkles, you can decorate each tiny cup serving with a sprinkle of your favorite topping. Keep the cups covered in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
For further reading (sorry only in Portuguese) see O Livro do Brigadeiro by Juliana Motter, who is also the chef-patissière of Maria Brigadeiro in São Paulo.
- Prep Time: 1 hour
- Cook Time: 10 mins