Hello ya mates! Seems like you’re going to see much more of my culinary experiences! I have been presented with a wonderful photo camera and the fun starts now!

So, Santa Claus gave Mia her first recipe book! Today we decided to explore it and chose of the treats that portuguese children like most. They’re small, chocolatey and fantasticly easy to make. Great for everyone to participate. These originally are called “Brigadeiros” and are from Brazil.

Brigadeiros (Milk Chocolate Balls)

1 condensed milk can

2 tbsp. of cocoa powder

1 tbspn. butter or margarine

chocolate vermicelli or coloured

Method:

Incorporate the condensed milk and cocoa powder in a large saucepan over low heat. Never stop whisking, because there is risk of burning. When you see the mixture bubbling slightly, add the butter or margarine and whisk until dissolved. Continue until it gets a pasty consistency and a bit hard to stir. Remove from the heat, alow to cool and refrigerate for about 10m.

But the vermicelli in a bowl, and grease your hands with margarine/butter. Take the dough from the fridge and mold little tablespoon sized balls,  rolling in the vermicelli afterwards. Place them in little paper cups and refrigerate again. Wait until the balls harden, and there you go! The hardest part is definetly the waiting…

Oi pessoal!

Resolvi aderir a modernidade tecnológica e criar um blog para mim. Ainda estou aprendendo a usar esta ferramenta, mas tenho certeza que será bem útil.

Divulgarei aqui todos os meus produtos e também receitas de outras guloseimas. Caso queira encomendar é só entrar em contato.

Espero que gostem dos posts que colocarei!

Beijos a todos.

Chegou o final de semana para ir para Angra!!!! Acordei cedo e fui deixar as crianças na escola, minha mãe pegaría eles na saida e passariam o final de semana na casa dela. Eles adoram ir para a casa dos avós, minha mãe  faz brigadeiros a comida que eles gostam e me pai faz tudo para agradar os netos. Voltei para a casa acabei de fazer a mala minha e do Mauricio e fui pegar ele no escritorio. Fomos para Angra ao meio día e estrada estava ótima. Chegamos na casa do Marcus, depois do mapa que tinha feito para a gente. Quando chegamos na porta falei para o Mauricio que tinhamos errado o endereço e nesse momento saiu o Marcus e convidou a gente para entrar. A casa era linda, a decoração de muito bom gosto e com uma vista linda para o mar. Ele mostrou o quarto da gente e falou “aqui podem ter uma lua de mel nova! Hahaha”.

When I was in Brazil, one of the first things I learned was: se não tem brigadeiros, não tem festa! If there’s a party there has to be brigadeiros. If there’s no brigadeiros, there’s no party. Easy as that. Once I tasted these scrumptious sweets, I understood and adapted that rule, and brought it home to Norway. Brigadeiros are brazilian “docinhos” or sweets. A candy made of sweetened condensed milk, butter and chocolate or chocolate powder. They are very easy to make, and very easy to eat too. So whenever I’m throwing a party – birthday, Christmas – whatever, I’m excused and finally allowed to eat brigadeiros again!

This weekend I was hosting a bachelorette-party, and that definetely called for brigadeiros. First of all, that’s a real party-excuse, and besides, brigadeiros tend to be very popular among the girls… I can say I was right! And they look like you’ve really made an effort, while they’re actually super-easy to make.
So if you want raise some praises, and try out these brazilian chocolate-balls, this is what you do:

You need:
1 can of sweetened condensed milk (400 g)
1 ts butter
1 ts nesquick (or a little chocolate)

Put everything in a heavy saucepan, mix and stir. Keep stirring constantly over low heat until the mixture holds together as a soft mass and you can see the bottom of the pan. Stir for another couple of minutes, and remove from heat. Allow to cool, and store in the fridge until it’s cold and firm enough to form little balls. It usually takes a few hours. If it’s very sticky, butter your hands to form the little balls. For a traditional look, roll in brown sprinkles and put in small paper cups. Or you can roll them in cocoa powder, icing sugar or coloured jimmies if you want to make them look different. Either way, they are delicious! But if you’re not making them for a party, but for your own pleasure you can do as the brazilians do: Simply eat it with a spoon straight out of the pan! If you’re like me, you know all food tastes better eaten that way…

Depois de acabar os brigadeiros as crianças subiram do play brigando e atacados. Meu marido brigando com  eles e tentando acalma-los sem chance nenhuma. Parei todo mundo na porta e falei que se não paravam ninguem ia comer brigadeiros. Nesse instante eles ficaram calados (até meu marido) e entraram em paz para sentar e comer doces de festa. Acabamos de conversar e minha amiga pegou um taxi de novo e foi para o Othon, depois de combinar que pegaría ela cedo para ir a Santa Teresa. Minhã sogra ligou e perguntou se a gente quería ir para sítio com eles. Mauricio falou que daqui a pouco a gente ligava para combinar…

I need to say a big “Thank You” to Craftster.org member, MusicalCrafts.  Today she shared a quick and easy recipe for a traditonal Brazilian sweet called brigadeiros.  I’ve seen recipes for this before, but I’d never seen it done in the microwave!  I had been intimidated by the prospect of stirring the mixture for 10 minutes straight on the stove (I’ll admit I have very little patience for cooking), but popping in the microwave for just 6 minutes is right up my ally!

Be sure to check out her recipe posted on Craftser and try it for yourself!

We rolled ours in powdered sugar, cocoa powder, coconut, pink sugar crystals, and the chocolate sprinkles.  The chocolate sprinkles were my favorite!

Thanks again, Musicalcrafts!

Um dos meus doces favoritos de todos os tempos. Lindos e deliciosos. Receita do fundo da gaveta. Um recorte da secção de culinária de uma revista cor-de-rosa qualquer.

Deita-se 1 lata de leite condensado numa caçarola, juntam-se 2 colheres de sopa de manteiga e leva-se ao lume sem parar de mexer até a mistura fazer ponto estrada. Adicionam-se 4 colheres de sopa de chocolate em pó, retira-se a mistura do lume e deixa-se arrefecer durante umas horas. Após o repouso, moldam-se bolinhas que se passam por chocolate granulado.

Notas:

- Fiquei meio perdida na altura de perceber se a mistura estava a fazer ponto estrada ou não. Acho que deixei tempo a mais ao lume e em vez de ponto estrada fez ponto auto-estrada, o que alterou um bocado a consistência pretendida. Apesar de tudo estavam comestíveis.

- Passsei também por granulado colorido e por côco ralado. Gosto especialmente da mistura do côco com o chocolate.

Matin tôt Slash Téléphérique Slash Pain de Sucre Slash Très belle vue à 360° sur la ville Next ! 

Retour à la lisière d’Ipanema, ma nouvelle adresse à deux pas de la plage, dans une étroite rue à l’accès fermé. L’entrée : digicode et porte cadenassée “Prison Break”. Mais chamantes petites maisons multicolores à trois étages maxi. Ilôt paisible cerné de tours. 

Lapa : DJs nuls, soirée nulle, club nul que je n’avais pas choisi ! Décrit comme un quartier bohème et vivant, très jeune et artiste. Je n’ai vu que des étudiants ivres et des hippies sales, copiés collés des années soixante-dix, enfin j’imagine. Et beaucoup de n’importe quoi prétendument artiste, banal cliché. J’aime trop les graffiti, pour flasher sur de vulgaires tags comme « art urbain ». Je n’aime pas Lapa ni ses pseudo artistes, ni ses nuits, ni le jour. Testé de jour comme de nuit à quelques reprises.

Ca j’aime, beaucoup même.  Enfin un lieu dédié à l’art, le MAM qui me parle, me fait voyager. Excellent musée, excitantes expositions d’artistes brésiliens et architecture intéressante : bravo !  Demain j’irai visiter M. Niemeyer à Niteroi (fantasque brillantissime architecte).

Je file à une dégustation de la marque brésilienne Chocolates Kopenhague : trop sucrés, doucereux, j’y perd le goût âpre du cacao, l’arôme. Chocolates Kopenhague : Av Rio Branco 151 B – Centro, Rio de Janeiro. Au salon de thé Confeitaria Colombo (depuis 1894), une autre découverte cette fois purement visuelle et typiquement brésilienne, les Brigadeiros : des friandises au chocolat entre truffes et petits four.  

Et ces bracelets à vœux  multicolores depuis l’enfance, représentent pour moi le signal des vacances. Quant aux vœux, ça c’est une autre histoire… J’ai juste oublié mes Havaianas, mon livre sur les tongs, Seu Jorge, ma compil Funk des Favelas…

My cooking soulmate got married this past weekend, so in honor of her wedding, I made a first attempt at serious confectioneering. Luckily, it came out successfully and I showed up to the wedding with a pretty sweet gift. Yes, that pun was intended.

If Brazil had a national candy, it would be the brigadeiro. That Americans don’t eat brigadeiros and likely have never heard of them is the type of thing that would hurt a Brazilian’s soul. To be honest, the first time I had one, it hurt my soul, too, that I had been deprived of such bliss for so many years. Essentially, brigadeiros are condensed milk heated slowly with cocoa powder or ground chocolate until they combine and slightly caramelize. You then allow the mixture to cool, dry, and harden, and shape as many 1″ balls
as you can get out of it. The balls are normally rolled in chocolate sprinkles, but there’s nothing stopping you from rolling them in pretty much anything, especially outside of Brazil where you don’t have the weight of tradition to deal with. I got even more deviant and made a second mixture that didn’t include chocolate at all, but did include vanilla, cinnamon, and ground cloves. My sister calls them “gabrielas” after a song that mentions all the ingredients, or something like that. She speaks Portuguese and knows the situation with Brazilian culture. I just really enjoy faking it.

In any case, both brigadeiros and gabrielas come out soft, dense, and glorious. They’re good for impressing existing friends, obtaining new friends, and just generally contributing to the Greater Good of Humanity.

***

Brigadeiros

Makes 15ish.

• 1 can of condensed milk
• 4 T cocoa powder or ground chocolate
• 1 T butter

Put all ingredients in a frying pan and heat over low heat for ~10-15 minutes, or until you have an amazing-smelling mass of somewhat gelatinous chocolate. You’ll know when it’s done when the chocolate stays together as a solid mass when you tilt the pan. Turn the chocolate out onto aluminum foil or wax paper and let it cool and dry for at least a half hour. More is better, if you have time. Shape the chocolate into 1″ diameter balls. If you cooked the mixture enough and let it dry sufficiently, the chocolate will be easy to shape and not overly sticky. Roll the balls in whatever you want. Chocolate sprinkles are the norm, but I also do all kinds of nuts, cocoa + coffee grinds, coconut + crystallized ginger, etc. Put the finished brigadeiros in mini cupcake wrappers.

Gabrielas

Makes 15ish.

• 1 can condensed milk
• 1 T butter
• 1 1/2 t vanilla extract
• 1/2 t ground cinnamon
• 1/2 t ground cloves

Follow the same procedure as above.

I got the chocolate store down the street from my apartment (Biagio, 18th and Florida NW) to give me a box so I could make everything look more legit.

Olha .. eu não sei vocês , mas para mim os melhores docinhos do Rio e quiça do Brasil, são os bombons e brigadeiros da Fabi.  Ela ainda não tem uma loja, mas vende suas gostosuras que nem água! Gente famosa, grandes executivos, socialites e também meros mortais como eu e o Hugo, são alguns exemplos de clientes fidelíssimos dessa menina que começou cedo, mas já teve seus doces reportados até na Veja-Rio.

Fica a dica para a Páscoa !