Brigadeiro
By Groceree
Also known as Negrinho
The Brazilian birthday sweet: condensed milk, cocoa and butter cooked down in a pan until the mixture pulls away from the base in a single mass, then cooled, rolled into balls and coated in chocolate sprinkles. The whole recipe turns on knowing when to stop cooking, and the test for that is visual rather than a number of minutes.
Last updated

- Servings
- 8 servings
- Prep
- 15 min
- Cook
- 12 min
- Total
- 1 h 30 min
Ingredients
sweetened condensed milk395 g
cocoa powder30 g
unsalted butter30 g
salt¼ tsp
unsalted butter1 tbsp
chocolate sprinkles100 g
Instructions
- 01
Put the , sifted , the 30 g of and the in a heavy-based saucepan and whisk them smooth off the heat. Any lumps of left now will still be there at the end.
- 02
Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly with a spatula and scraping the base and the corners of the pan the entire time. The mixture loosens first, then darkens and begins to thicken from around 6 minutes.
- 03
Keep going for 10 to 12 minutes in all. It is ready when you drag the spatula across the base and the mixture parts to show the bare pan for a full second before closing over, and the whole mass slides after the spatula rather than flowing.
- 04
Scrape it onto a buttered plate, spread it to about 1.5 cm deep and leave at room temperature for at least 1 hour, until it is firm and no longer warm.
- 05
Tip the into a shallow bowl. your palms lightly, pinch off pieces of about 15 g and roll them into balls, re-buttering your hands as soon as the mixture starts to stick.
- 06
Roll each ball through the until it is completely covered and sit it in a paper case. Makes about 25.
Notes
- The pull-away test is the entire recipe. Undercooked they slump and cannot be rolled; a minute too far and they turn chewy and grainy as the sugar crystallises. If they end up too soft, serve them in small glasses as brigadeiro de colher instead.
- It has to be cocoa powder, not drinking chocolate. Drinking chocolate is mostly sugar, so the mixture comes out sickly and never firms up enough to hold a ball.
- They keep for up to five days in an airtight container at cool room temperature. The fridge makes them hard, so take them out half an hour before serving.
Nutrition per serving
- Calories
- 250 kcal
- Protein
- 4 g
- Carbs
- 37 g
- Fat
- 10 g
Estimated from the ingredients.
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