Brigadeiros

I absolutely love sweets of any kind. If you were to plop it down in front of me, I wouldn’t think twice. If that sweet involves chocolate, all bets are off, I’m climbing over that table to get what is rightfully mine. These Brazilian chocolate fudge balls will not only leave you jumping from plate to plate, they will leave you craving this stuff day in and day out.

I have to admit, I did have a little problem the first time I made the batter. The recipe says to add butter before you heat the mixture, but I forgot about that step. I didn’t think that it would be too big of a problem, and it wasn’t. What I did was, I still added it while it was hot. The taste of this batter was still really good but it just wouldn’t solidify.

My second try I made sure that I followed the directions exactly. As well, I cooked it a little bit longer just to make sure it wouldn’t be runny. These things together seemed to work absolute miracles. Taking it off, I was a little worried that it wouldn’t be right.

This recipe was incredibly easy to make. All you were really doing was making watching a pan of sweetened condensed milk and cocoa get thicker. After that, the whole recipe was a breeze. I personally ate about 15 of these bad boys and my family another 10. Everyone I gave them to absolutely loved them and gave me compliments. Flavor wise I would give this recipe a 10/10. As well, I would give it a 10/10 because I feel like it had a good flavor that wasn’t ever overpowering or too much. For me, this is very important because I don’t want to eat something that makes me nauseous it is so sweet.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 can sweetened condensed milk 14-ounce
• 1/4 cup baking cocoa powder
• 2 tablespoon unsalted butter (softened) plus extra to grease plate and hands
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• Chocolate vermicelli or good quality chocolate sprinkles

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Whisk the condensed milk and cocoa powder together until obtaining a homogeneous mixture (without lumps of cocoa powder). Then, stir in the butter.
2. Stove: Cook in a medium non-stick saucepan over medium-low to medium heat (large burner), stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens and starts to peel away or show the bottom of the pan when you scrape it with your wood spoon (about 5-8 minutes). The chocolate fudge mixture should be thick enough to show you the bottom of the pan for a couple of seconds before the mixture levels out again.
3. Microwave: Pour mixture into a deep microwaveable bowl. If 900 watts, let cook on full power for about 6 minutes — removing and stirring at least every 2 minutes, or until thick enough to be rolled (remember that when it cools down, mixture will be thicker). While it is cooking, do not leave the microwave unattended because mixture will rise and possibly bubble over, making a mess. Every time it rises, pause until mixture settles back down. If 1100 watts, cook at 80 % power. Double batches take more time to cook.
4. When chocolate fudge is ready, remove either from the stove top or microwave, mix in the vanilla extract and spread mixture onto a greased plate.
5. Let cool to room temperature before starting to roll them into balls with greased hands. Use a 1/2 ( or 1 ) Tablespoon as measurement. Then, dredge gently in the chocolate vermicellis until totally covered, and place into paper bonbon cups.