Brigadeiro

Photo Credit: Pinterest

We have discovered that the upcoming Tuesday will be a half-day, so Zhou and I will be making the brigadeiros on that particular day. On Friday, after school was over, we headed over to the local grocery store to purchase the cocoa powder and the sweetened condensed milk. We have leftover butter from our previous baking/making experiences; now we have collected all the ingredients essential to make the chocolate-y balls of goodness. I am hoping to bring the many variations of sprinkles (used for our Valentine’s Day’s cupcakes) and cocoa powder to coat the outside of the chilled brigadeiro balls, as well as leave a couple balls plain for others to enjoy its flavors with no additives. Originally we were going to make the dessert this weekend, but due to conflicting schedules as well as Zhou falling ill, we will definitely create them on Tuesday after school. There will be an edit to this blogpost on Tuesday; Zhou and I will provide photos of the entire process and I will discuss the experience of making the traditional Brazilian desserts.
Update: Today Zhou and I made the brigadeiros as planned. We only had approximately 30 minutes to make them, as I had to leave early for volunteering. However, as soon as we arrived at Zhou’s house, we immediately began prepping (reading the recipe more thoroughly and measuring out the ingredients) and making the mixture.

Photo Credit: Vanessa Mei

Throwing all the ingredients into a saucepan, it took about ten minutes, stirred on low heat for the concoction to thicken up.

Photo Credit: Vanessa Mei

I noticed that while I was constantly mixing, the sweetened condensed milk, cocoa powder, and butter began to lose its liquid-y viscosity at a rapid rate, and started to quickly scorch around the sides of the pan. I had to stir more vigorously to prevent the milk from scorching too much, and lowered the flame. I remembered watching a video (Laura in the Kitchen) where she explained that we would be able to tell when the brigadeiros are ready - when you drag the utensil across the bottom of the pan and the mixture is too thick to cover the line.

Photo Credit: Vanessa Mei

After I saw that they were done, I instructed Zhou to butter the bowl that would be used to hold the brigadeiros. This is to ensure that the mixture, extremely thick and sticky, would not stick to the sides of the bowl and make it very difficult to clean. By the time we were finished with the process, I had to leave, so I entrusted Zhou to wait for the brigadeiros to cool down before buttering his hands and shaping the compound into bite-sized balls.