Traditional Brazilian Party Sweets: Brigadeiros

Brigadeiros are one of the most well known Brazilian sweets and one of the most delicious ones!

They are essentially creamy, chewy truffles made with condensed milk, chocolate milk powder and butter.

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What are Brigadeiros?

Brigadeiros are creamy, chewy chocolate truffles covered in sprinkles. The traditional version uses regular chocolate sprinkles, but you can use any sprinkles you want as long as they are not too hard.

In Brazil, Brigadeiros are normally served at birthday parties, especially children’s parties. You can place them around the birthday cake with some Beijinhos and Bicho de Pé (Stawberry Brigadeiros). Your guests can grab them as they get a slice of cake, plus, they are a very tasty table decor!

Ingredients

1 can sweetened condensed milk – This is what makes Brigadeiros super gooey and delicious.

1 tablespoon butter + more to coat your hands – You can use salted or unsalted butter. I personally prefer salted because it contrasts a bit with the sweet condensed milk. You will also need extra butter to coat your hands before shaping the Brigadeiros. I once forgot to do that, and ended up with my hands covered in a chocolate mess and a lot of wasted Brigadeiro!

2 tablespoons chocolate milk powder – You can also use cocoa powder if you don’t like super sweet desserts, but I think that the cocoa powder makes the Brigadeiros flour-y and grainy, so they won’t be as creamy as Brigaderios made with chocolate milk powder.

Sprinkles – You can use any type of sprinkles you want, as long as they are not super hard.

This is not an ingredient, but you will need candy cups. In Brazil we normally use candy cup #3, but I noticed that this is a very uncommon size in the US. I use the smallest one I can find on Amazon. Here’s a link for the candy cups #3 on Amazon.

How to make Brigadeiros

Rub some butter on a salad or dinner plate, coating the entire surface of the plate, as shown in the picture below. This is so that later, when you place your finished dough on the plate to cool, it doesn’t stick to the plate.

Add condensed milk, butter, and chocolate milk powder to a medium saucepan and bring it to medium heat.

Start stirring the mixture with a silicone spoon or spatula as soon as you turn on the heat. The mixture will start bubbling and then thicken. Keep stirring until you run the spoon through the center of the pan and see the bottom for a few seconds, before the dough covers it up again. It should take about 5 minutes.

If you stop stirring during this process the bottom of the dough will burn, and the texture will change.

Transfer the dough to the plate you prepared in the beginning. Cover it with plastic food wrap (the wrap has to be in contact with the dough as shown below). Let it cool at room temperature for about 1 hour or until the dough is cool enough to be handled.

While you wait for the dough to cool, you can separate the candy cups. Place them in a tray, big food container, cookie sheet or plate.

Put sprinkles in a small bowl. If you’re using different kinds of sprinkles, put each type in a different bowl.

Coat your hands with butter and start rolling the dough into balls about 1 inch in diameter! You can use a spoon to make sure all the truffles are the same size or just grab a little bit of dough at a time. If using a spoon, coat it with butter before starting.

To roll the dough into a ball place some dough on the palm of your hand. Put the other hand on top and make circular motions with each hand on opposite directions.

You might need to clean your hands with a paper towel and re-apply butter if they get too dirty. It’s always better to wipe your hands first before washing them because the dough is pretty sticky.

After rolling each truffle into a ball, place it in the bowl of sprinkles. Cover the outside of the Brigadeiro completely with sprinkles. The best way to do this is moving it around in the bowl, so the sprinkles stick to them. Take it out of the bowl and place it in a candy cup. Repeat this step until you have used up all the dough.

Enjoy the Brigadeiros!

How long are Brigadeiros good for?

I normally end up eating all the Brigadeiros within a few days, so I am not fully certain how long they take to go bad, but I would suggest eating them within 5 days.

How to store them?

You can store them at room temperature in any container (doesn’t have to be airtight) or refrigerate them.

My personal preference is to keep them at room temperature because the texture doesn’t change as much as when they are placed in the fridge.

From my experience, if you store them in the fridge, they will go from chewy and soft to crumbly and dry.