Brazilians have lots of little sweets – cocada, brigadeiro, beijinhos de coco, doce de leite, and so many more. Many of them (or, at least, the ones my Brazilian fiancé has introduced me to) involve sweetened condensed milk and take about ten to fifteen minutes to make.Brigaderio’s no exception. Sweet little balls of slighty caramel, chocolatey goodness, typically rolled in balls, and rolled in sprinkles. It’s not unlike a slacker fudgey truffle, with only three (or four) ingredients: a 14oz can of sweetened condensed milk, 3 Tbs of cocoa powder, 1-2 Tbs of butter, and (optionally) up to 1 tsp of vanilla, which are cooked over medium heat until it all comes together and gets thick, about 10 minutes (constantly stirring).
Normally, at that point, you pour it into a bowl, let it cool 30-60 minutes, and butter your hands to make it into balls, and roll the balls into chocolate sprinkles. I made this batch at 3 am, while finishing up laundry, so I didn’t hang out long enough to roll it and just spread it out like I would fudge and shook sprinkles onto half of it. (Totally not traditional, but what can I say? It was 3 am, and I was tired!)
Incidentally, beijinhos de coco is essentially the same thing, but instead of 3 Tbs of cocoa powder, you use 4 Tbs of sweetened dried coconut that you add after 15-20 minutes (instead of immediately), and instead of rolling it in chocolate sprinkles, you roll it in more sweetened dried coconut. Traditionally, you also press a whole clove into the top of a beijinho de coco (but it’s entirely for decoration so you don’t haaaaaaaaaave to).