{Beijinhos de Coco} Brazilian Coconut Treats

I am coconut mad at the moment. I want everything coconut. Dinner? Let’s put coconut milk in. Dessert/Treats? Shredded Coconut please! Drinks? Coconut water! Seriously it’s madness! But tasty madness so I don’t care. These little coconut treats are called Beijinhos – beijinhos literally mean “little kisses” in Portuguese. It’s such a cute name for these treats. Little coconut kisses…now tell me you aren’t dying to taste one of these? These cuties are super super easy to make and they taste fantastic. They are the coconut equivalent of Brigadeiros which are made exactly the same but with chocolate. I adore brigadeiros and both brigadeiros and beijinhos used to be my favourite treats when I was growing up. I asked Christoph which he prefers between those 2 and he couldn’t make up his mind claiming I needed to make brigadeiros again to see if that would help him choose….I think we could get stuck in a brigadeiro-beijinho circle, all in the name of testing… And talk about what a sugar rush that would be! As if there is a downside to these is that you need very strong willpower to not eat tooooooo many as they are made of condensed milk, so not exactly the most heathly. Do you see a pattern here with Brazilian sweets? Condensed milk is used A LOT of the time. Beijinhos de Coco 1 tin (397g) of condensed milk 100g of coconut flakes plus extra for rolling 1 tablespoon of butter plus extra for rolling Cloves for decorating In a pan add the condensed milk, 100g of coconut flakes and the butter. Now the fun begins! Over medium heat start stirring. And keep stirring until the mixture thickens and you can see the bottom of the pan for a good few seconds before the mixture levels out again. This is really important. This process should take at least 6-7 min, don’t rush it or it won’t be the right consistency to roll into balls. Leave it to cool, around 15min, enough so that it is cool to hold in your hands and the mixture has firmed up. Grab the flakes you had reserved for rolling. You can do 2 things here: 1) Use them as they are to roll or 2) Blitz them so that they are super fine. I blitzed them as I like the outside texture to be soft. But it is totally up to you if you decide to do this. Coat your hands in a little butter (just so that the mixture doesn’t stick) and start making your balls. I like mine the size of a little smaller than a measuring tablespoon. Once all rolled out put one clove in the midle for decoration. This is traditional and for decoration. Remove it before eating and it does leave a nice taste. I am bringing these to this week’s Fiesta Friday, co-hosted this week by Michelle @Giraffes Can Bake and Juju @ cookingwithauntjuju, to share with my friends. Beijinhos bring back such happy memories for me of kids parties, of Brazil and my mum so I hope you enjoy them as much as I do and maybe even create your own sweet memories with them. Happy Fiesta Friday everyone! xoxo