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Brazil, Americas

Brigadeiro

Brazil's birthday-party classic: condensed milk, cocoa and butter cooked into a fudgy dough, rolled into little balls and coated in chocolate sprinkles.

ServingsServes 2
Total cooking time18 min
Cooling+ 1 h
DifficultyEasy
About servingsThe cooking mixture is very sugary and gets extremely hot. If you cook with children, let an adult do the stove part and let the kids roll only once it is completely cool.

Method

  1. Spread a thin film of butter over a wide plate; this is where the cooked mixture will cool. Tip the chocolate sprinkles into a small bowl and set out mini paper sweet cases if you have them.

    Add in this stepUnsalted butter 3 g

  2. Put the condensed milk, cocoa and butter into a 16 cm non-stick saucepan (heavy-based is best) and stir with a silicone spatula before you turn on the heat, until no lumps of cocoa remain. Cocoa added to a hot pan clumps and stays lumpy.

    Add in this stepSweetened condensed milk 200 gCocoa powder (unsweetened, or 50% sweetened drinking chocolate) 12 gUnsalted butter 9 g

  3. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, for . Keep scraping the bottom and corners so nothing sticks. It is ready when the mixture is thick and comes away from the base of the pan, slides around as one mass when you tilt the pan, and a line drawn with the spatula across the bottom stays open for 2 to 3 seconds. Undercooked, the balls slump; overcooked, they turn hard and grainy.

    medium-low heat

  4. Scrape the mixture onto the buttered plate, let it lose its steam at room temperature, then chill it, about in total, until it feels cold and holds its shape like soft modelling clay. The mixture is extremely hot straight from the pan, so do not touch it until it has cooled.

  5. Rub the remaining butter on your palms, scoop the mixture by the teaspoon (about 15 g) and roll it into 2.5 cm balls; you will get about 12. Roll each one in the sprinkles until fully covered and sit it in a paper case. If the mixture starts sticking to your hands, wipe them and butter them again lightly.

    Add in this stepUnsalted butter 3 gChocolate sprinkles 35 g

Cook's tip

If the mixture is too soft to roll, put it back in the pan and cook over low heat for 1 to 2 minutes more. A non-stick pan and constant stirring are what stop it catching and burning. Keep them in an airtight box for a day at room temperature or 3 to 4 days in the fridge.

Cooking it at camp

You can cook it in a small non-stick pan over a low stove flame, but camp burners heat unevenly, so lift the pan off the flame now and then as you stir. Cooling takes time, so the easiest plan is to make the mixture at home, carry it in the cooler and just roll the balls at the campsite, a fun job for kids.