Monday, December 04, 2006

Brigadeiros

Have you had these? You are missing out if you haven't. These are little Brazilian delicacies that are pure chocolatey, caramel-y goodness. A family friend who used to live in Brazil introduced me to these years ago, and when I asked her for the recipe she really gave me the run around. She bribed me! She told me if I stayed friends with her daughter forever, she would give me the recipe. No problemo, I had to have the recipe, even if her daughter was a pain. Needless to say, I kept my end of the deal and she kept up her end. I now have the recipe and although I can never get them to turn out right, I keep trying, because they are just delectable eaten straight out of the bowl! Here is the recipe:

1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 T. butter
3 T. cocoa powder


Boil the can of sweetened condensed milk in the can for 3 hours. Now I know this method is no longer recommended because of the serious hazards, so use your judgement, you can also cook it in the oven out of the can or over the stove top. Commom sense caution: If you do boil it in the can, don't open the can until it is completely cool and don't blame me if you get into trouble here, you've been warned. So, after you do that, pour the sweetened condensed milk into a pot, add butter and cocoa and stir over medium heat. Now this is the part where I mess up. Perhaps I don't cook it long enough or maybe I cook it too long, but after this step you are supposed to roll into balls. It is really sticky, so put butter on your hands. I still have trouble here, so I usually roll a few, roll into sprinkles/jimmies(is there a difference?) and then grab a spoon and start eating it out of the pot. Put into little candy cups if you make it that far.

You are probably asking yourself," Why did she post this recipe if it is a flop"? The truth is, they really are worth a shot and I believe there must be somebody out there who knows how to make them turn out right and then you can help me. Maybe my friend's Mom tricked me and didn't give me the exact recipe for fear that I would take the recipe and run?

In a few recipes I have seen that the sweetened condensed milk is not cooked prior to the second cooking, it just suggests to cook it all at once. Maybe that is my problem? I'll let you know after I try this method. You should also note that they can be rolled into sugar, coconut, nuts, or little white non-pareils or rainbow sprinkles, but I highly recommend the chocolate sprinkles, especially these.

So, try them, they really are not as much work as they seem and they make great little somethings to give to your friends/neighbors at this holiday time. And if they don't work, just heat and pour over some ice cream.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Funny--I was thinking of making these this week. I can give you our recipe. They can be really easy, but they can also go south, if you know what I mean. I've never heard of the boil in the can method. We just pour a can of the sc milk into a small saucepan, add butter (we never measure, so I'm sure it's at least 1-2 TB.) and sometimes we add bittersweet or unsweetened chocolate instead of cocoa (again, no measuring--we're LAZY.)

Then we cook it until it gets really thick. It doesn't take too long. And then we pour it onto a buttered plate or into a shallow bowl to cool.

It hardly ever makes it to the ball stage because we can't stop eating it by the spoonful.

It's also yummy if you leave out the chocolate, but add dessicated coconut--not the sweetened flaked kind for baking. Then you roll it in sugar or toasted coconut after.

When we went to a Brazilian wedding over the summer the did the chocolate brig. and coconut balls, and then they had these tasty red ones. I'm assuming they were strawberry. In any case, you can bet my plate (because it was a buffet) was half all of those and half cake.

EVERYONE should have these or make them sometime in their life.

Jenni said...

i knew you'd come through for me, lindsey...thanks a milion

Erin said...

i can't wait to try these. i loved the turkey tetrazzini jenni, thanks for the recipe.

Lisa said...

I always know where to come for great recipes!
Thanks Jenni & Lindsey!

PassTheChips said...

Sweetened condensed milk. Mmmmmmmm!

love.boxes said...

I can't believe someone would frost a grapefruit and give it to a kid. Hello????????????

LisAway said...

Oh, we LOVE these. I've never heard of boiling the can before hand, but I'm sure it's better if you do as it means your starting with dulche de leche instead of just plain SC milk. MMmmmmmmm. I am exactly like you and roll just a few (for the kids) and scoop the rest out with a spoon. YUM!