Brigadeiros rolled in Coconut Flakes

Most of you may not know this but I am half Brazilian, having been born in Brazil, Macaé from a Brazilian mother. My father was from England, Newcastle in fact, so I am a rare mix of Brazilian and Geordie!

My family and I left Brazil when I was a little girl of 9 and we went to live in France. The original plan being to come and live in the UK but my dad took my mother to Scotland in the middle of winter and, well, needless to say we left in a hurry, ending up in France, living close to my granddad, who wasn’t really my grandad. Everyone has one of those right? Hmm just re-read this and it sounds dodgy but I promise it isn’t!

Anyway, there we stayed and when I was 17 I moved to the UK while my parents stayed in France. The rest is history!

My mother always used to make me brigadeiros when I was young. Brigadeiros are traditional Brazilian soft chocolate balls rolled in chocolate sprinkles. Hmmm. This description doesn’t give it any justice. They are delicious I promise! Often eaten for birthdays and celebrations.

I love them and I realised that I had never made them for Christoph. I decided to make them but instead of rolling them in chocolate sprinkles I did it in coconut shavings. So a little bit as if it was a mix between a brigadeiro and a beijinho (it’s made the same but instead of a cocoa mix it’s actually made with coconut shavings then rolled into sugar – it actually means little kiss, how cute is that! – and it’s AMAZING).

You can get slight variations of this recipe. But this is the one I grew up with and I love.

Ingredients:

– a large tin of condensed milk
– 1tbsp of butter
– 2 tbsp of cocoa powder
– Coconut flakes for rolling (or you can go traditional and use chocolate sprinkles)

In a pan mix the condensed milk, butter and coco powder in a low to medium heat. Keep mixing, how long will depend I find on the type of pan you use, making sure you don’t forget the sides or it will burn. This is good exercise to make up for the ridiculous amount of calories they have! You will know when it’s ready when you part the mixture with your wooden spoon and you can see the bottom of the pan. The consistency should be thick and glossy.

Leave it to cool in the pan. Have your coconut (or chocolate) on a plate/container. Once it’s cool, butter your hands and spoon some mixture onto your hands, rolling it into a ball. Drop it onto the coconut making sure it’s coated all over. Put them in little paper cups – you probably noticed that my cups are too big for my balls – that was a bit of a weird sentence… – and that’s because it was the only ones I had! Repeat until you have used up the mixture. Popping a few in your mouth thought out when no one is looking.

I hope you enjoy this typical Brazilian recipe from my childhood!

Xoxo