Brigadeiro
In its basic form three ingredients — condensed milk, cocoa and butter — and one thing to get right: the moment to stop cooking. Too early and the mixture will not roll into balls and spreads on the plate. Too late and it sets into a sweet that pulls at your teeth. The right point has one test: a spoon drawn across the base leaves a trail that holds for two seconds. That is the whole recipe.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Cooking 15 min
- Cooling 120 min
- Rolling 20 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneWhisk the cocoa into cold condensed milk
Stir the sifted cocoa into the cold condensed milk until smooth, before you turn on the heat. Cocoa added to a hot mixture seizes into lumps that are very hard to break up afterwards — and a sieve does not help at that stage.
Ingredients: 400 g sweetened condensed milk · 30 g cocoa · 30 g butter · 50 g dark chocolate · 1 pinch salt
Cook over low heat, stirring constantly
Add the butter, chocolate and salt and cook over low heat, stirring without stopping with a spatula and reaching into the corners. Condensed milk quickly catches on the base if you pause — and a scorched, bitter note then runs through the whole batch.
Ingredients: 400 g sweetened condensed milk · 30 g cocoa · 30 g butter · 50 g dark chocolate · 1 pinch salt
Constant stirring — no pauses.Stop at the two-second trail
After 12–15 minutes the mixture starts pulling away from the base in one mass. Draw the spatula across the base: the trail should stay open for two seconds. One second — keep cooking. Three seconds — it will set hard once cool.
Ingredients: 400 g sweetened condensed milk · 30 g cocoa · 30 g butter · 50 g dark chocolate · 1 pinch salt
A two-second open trail — take it off.Spread on a buttered plate and cool
Pour onto a buttered plate and spread thin. A thin layer cools evenly; left in the pan it sets hard at the edge and soft in the middle. Press cling film onto the surface and cool for 2 hours at room temperature.
Ingredients: 400 g sweetened condensed milk · 30 g cocoa · 30 g butter · 50 g dark chocolate · 1 pinch salt
Roll with buttered hands
Butter your hands and roll walnut-sized balls (about 3 cm, a spoonful of mixture each). Butter on your hands, not cocoa — cocoa dries the surface and the ball cracks. Renew the butter every few balls.
Ingredients: 100 g chocolate · 20 g butter
Butter on your hands, not cocoa.Coat and set in paper cases
Roll each ball in grated chocolate or sprinkles and place in a paper case. Serve at room temperature — from the fridge a brigadeiro is hard and loses the creaminess that is its whole charm. Keep somewhere cool for up to 3 days.
Ingredients: 100 g chocolate · 20 g butter
Before you start
Brigadeiro de colher
The "spoon" version: take the mixture off the heat earlier, when the trail closes almost at once, and serve it in small pots instead of rolling it. It is also the simplest rescue if the mixture came out too soft to roll.
Flavour variations
Beijinho is the same base with desiccated coconut instead of cocoa, rolled in coconut. Pistachio paste, nut paste or salted caramel versions work too — use about 60 g of paste in place of the cocoa.
Cool it on the worktop
Cooled at room temperature, the mixture is uniform and pliable. From the fridge it can be hard at the edges and crack as you roll — if you did chill it, give it 20–30 minutes on the worktop before shaping.
