I can’t express how excited I am about this recipe. Growing up in Brazil this is the one dessert I ate the most. It is served in every birthday party and special occasion. Originally, it is called Brigadeiro and it is made by mixing sweetened condensed milk, butter and powder chocolate. It is a kind of bonbon or chocolate truffle, soft in texture and usually rolled into balls and covered in granulated chocolate. It is also used as a topping or filling for cakes, brownies and other pastries.
I have always missed eating this treat and I honestly thought I would never eat it again. After giving it some thought I decided to make a paleo, low carb and refined sugar free version of these delicious brazilian treats.
I have to say I succeeded in my attempt and I came up with a healthy version of it, made with coconut milk, a little honey, grass fed butter and raw unsweetened cacao powder. I wish all my Brazilian friends were in my kitchen and could smell it while I was making it. It smelled exactly the same!
The secret to it was to make my own condensed milk. This is a lengthy step and took about 2 hours. The other thing important mentioning is that is it really hard to tell when the Brigadeiro is ready, especially this Paleo friendly version.
Here is a picture of my dairy free and sugar free condensed milk when I removed it from the stove, about 2 hours later. It had a thick consistency and the color was a little more yellowish.
Here is my finished brigadeiro. I rolled it in cacao powder instead of granulated chocolate.
So here are the ingredients you will need:
- 1 can of good quality coconut milk (full fat)
- 3 tbs of raw honey
- 4 tbs raw cacao powder (unsweetened)
- 1 tbs butter
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- mix the coconut milk and the honey in a sauce pan
- stir under medium heat until simmering
- lowed the heat as low as it goes and let it cook for 2 hours
- stir the mixture once in a while
You will notice the mixture getting thicker and after 2 hours it should be thick enough so that it does not run off the spoon easily.
- in the same sauce pan you cooked the condensed milk, add the butter and half of the chocolate under medium heat.
- stir and add the remaining chocolate.
- This is important now; keep stirring the mixture.
- Once it starts to boil, stir it for another 12 minutes approximately scrapping the sides of the pan.
You will notice the mixture getting very thick. It is hard to tell when it is ready and you achieved the right consistence. - let it cool a little and place it in the fridge for about 2 hours. It is important it is cool before you roll it.
- remove from fridge, line your hands with butter and start rolling the chocolate into balls. You might need to add more butter to your hands in between a few rolls.
- cover each ball in cacao powder, coconut or chopped up nuts.
If you feel the chocolate is not thick enough to roll into balls place it back in the stove at medium heat and let it cook a little longer. Then place it in the fridge again before attempting to roll it into balls. If you over cook it it will have a very sticky consistency at the end, not soft and creamy.
Makes about 25 balls
Posted in: chocolates / truffles, Desserts
Tags: brigadeiro sem acucar, brigadeiro sem leite, dairy free brigadeiro, dairy free condensed milk, low carb condensed milk, paleo condensed milk, sugar free brigadeiro, sugar free condensed milk
Hey there, thanks for submitting this recipe to FastPaleo.com. I’m posting it right now, but I removed the dairy and sugar free part from the headline, as it actually does have butter in it.
And since FastPaleo is generally sugar free, it made sense to leave that part out. This looks absolutely fantastic, and I look forward to giving it a try!
You are right…I was so excited about the fact that it does not contain milk that I forgot about the butter. I will remove from the title here also. Thank you for sharing!
Do you think it would still work if the butter was replaced with coconut oil?
Hi Dawn, for sure if you replaced the butter with coconut oil it will not taste like the real Brigadeiro from Brazil, but besides the taste I think it would work just fine. If you try it please let me know how it turns out.
Just found your site via pinterest! Anything with chocolate in the title is definitely going in my bookmarks. Can’t wait to try some of your recipes! Thanks for sharing!
amei! vou experimentar hoje mesmo!! mas será que não fica com gosto de côco? se ficar, tudo bem, é uma mistura de brigadeiro com docinho de côco
yum
Aline, ficou muito parecido com o brigadeiro que agete esta acustumada, sem gosto de coco. Se eu tivesse enrolado no granulado de chocolate teria ficado igualzinho.
Hi Adriana, in step 1 you say: ‘add the butter and half the chocolate…’ Did you mean the cocoa powder? Thanks.