Brigadeiro is the name of the famous Brazilian sweet that we have in children's parties. It is a chocolate and condensed milk mixture rolled with nonpareil sprinkles. The recipe is easy. The difficult part is to know when the cooking is done. While hot, the dough will always be soft. When cooled, it has to be hard enough to be able to be rolled into little balls, if it is too soft, it's a lot of trouble to roll, it will stick to our hand. If it is too hard, then the taste is not the same....
I am sorry about all the talk for one of the simplest Brazilian treats. But people who have not grown with them are not used to the process, I thought it would be useful to describe it in detail.
Ingredients:
1 can sweetened condensed milk
4 tablespoons chocolate powder (Nesquick)
1 tablespoon butter
Equipment: deep refractory glass bowl for use in microwave oven.
WARNING: Do not use plastic. The sweet gets very hot. Be careful when handling the container with its hot content. It can break if there is a sudden variation of temperature.
Preparation:
Mix all ingredients with a spoon directly in the bowl. Place in microwave at HIGH power for 2 minutes. Wait 1 minute. Remove, stir until smooth (the butter is melted on top).
1 can sweetened condensed milk
4 tablespoons chocolate powder (Nesquick)
1 tablespoon butter
Equipment: deep refractory glass bowl for use in microwave oven.
WARNING: Do not use plastic. The sweet gets very hot. Be careful when handling the container with its hot content. It can break if there is a sudden variation of temperature.
Preparation:
Mix all ingredients with a spoon directly in the bowl. Place in microwave at HIGH power for 2 minutes. Wait 1 minute. Remove, stir until smooth (the butter is melted on top).
Place in microwave HIGH power again, for 1 minute. Wait 1 minute. Stir.
Repeat the process until it totals 6 minutes or by testing consistency: using a teaspoon, get a little bit of the sweet and drop it in a shallow plate containing some cold water. If mixture is soft but not very liquid, it is good to roll the sweets.
Wait until it cools down. If it is still a bit soft, you can take it again to the microwave, but the rolling will have to be delayed, since you will have a hot mixture again. It is better to make it one day ahead.
Rolling the sweets:
In a large, shallow plate, drop some nonpareil sprinkles.
Apply a little butter or margarine in your hands. With a teaspoon, get a little of the sweet mixture and put it in your hands. Shape the balls, rolling. When the ball is shaped, drop it in the plate with the nonpareil. Move the little ball around the plate, so that the sprinkles stick to the dough. Put the decorated balls in candy cups.
Notes:
If you want to eat the sweet with a spoon, cook the dough only for a total of 4 minutes only. It is softer this way, and easier to serve. You only need little plastic cups and a very little spoon that fits inside it.
For larger amounts of the candy, double the ingredients. But time is not always double, although it takes longer to cook to the right consistency. For example, for 3 cans of condensed milk (3 times the recipe), I usually cook for 3 minutes in the beginning, wait 1 minute, stir. Cook for 3 more minutes, wait 1 minute, stir again. From then on I cook for 2 minutes at a time, stirring always in the end. In my microwave it takes about 15 minutes.
The amount of cooking time also depends on the condensed milk. If the can of condensed milk is sitting in the pantry for a long time, it is almost turning into "dulce de leche", and it is more consistent. Therefore, less cooking time is needed.
Personal opinion: I prefer the taste of "Brigadeiro" made in a saucepan, although after sprinkling the nonpareils, only a few people notice the difference between the 2 versions.
* I had an Anchor glass dish that got broken into thousands of pieces while I was stirring the hot mixture. The cause may have been that he was placed on the counter a little wet, or perhaps the container could not stand high temperatures. I'm using a Pyrex for a long time now, it is "doing well". But now I always wait for a minute before removing container from microwave and stirring its content.
Another presentation (spiders for Halloween):
Repeat the process until it totals 6 minutes or by testing consistency: using a teaspoon, get a little bit of the sweet and drop it in a shallow plate containing some cold water. If mixture is soft but not very liquid, it is good to roll the sweets.
Wait until it cools down. If it is still a bit soft, you can take it again to the microwave, but the rolling will have to be delayed, since you will have a hot mixture again. It is better to make it one day ahead.
Rolling the sweets:
In a large, shallow plate, drop some nonpareil sprinkles.
Apply a little butter or margarine in your hands. With a teaspoon, get a little of the sweet mixture and put it in your hands. Shape the balls, rolling. When the ball is shaped, drop it in the plate with the nonpareil. Move the little ball around the plate, so that the sprinkles stick to the dough. Put the decorated balls in candy cups.
Notes:
If you want to eat the sweet with a spoon, cook the dough only for a total of 4 minutes only. It is softer this way, and easier to serve. You only need little plastic cups and a very little spoon that fits inside it.
For larger amounts of the candy, double the ingredients. But time is not always double, although it takes longer to cook to the right consistency. For example, for 3 cans of condensed milk (3 times the recipe), I usually cook for 3 minutes in the beginning, wait 1 minute, stir. Cook for 3 more minutes, wait 1 minute, stir again. From then on I cook for 2 minutes at a time, stirring always in the end. In my microwave it takes about 15 minutes.
The amount of cooking time also depends on the condensed milk. If the can of condensed milk is sitting in the pantry for a long time, it is almost turning into "dulce de leche", and it is more consistent. Therefore, less cooking time is needed.
Personal opinion: I prefer the taste of "Brigadeiro" made in a saucepan, although after sprinkling the nonpareils, only a few people notice the difference between the 2 versions.
* I had an Anchor glass dish that got broken into thousands of pieces while I was stirring the hot mixture. The cause may have been that he was placed on the counter a little wet, or perhaps the container could not stand high temperatures. I'm using a Pyrex for a long time now, it is "doing well". But now I always wait for a minute before removing container from microwave and stirring its content.
Another presentation (spiders for Halloween):
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