Home About The Fame! Contact

Thursday 19 January 2012

Re-Inventing the Lamington 2012 Day Three: Brigadeiro Lamingtons

Link
Slightly festive is today's Kewpie, yes.
But then we are joining sweets from different corners of the globe.
It's cause for (trouserless) celebration!



(In which Mr. P travels without moving. For once.)

(I always disliked Jamiroquai by the way. Greatly. It was the stupid hats. So don't start...)

Greetings, friends. Today, we are off to Argentina, and we don't even need to leave the kitchen. Which I know my more local readers will particularly appreciate: it is FREEZING out there. As it is inside my kitchen as well, truth be told. Mr. Other P has done something to the boiler and I can't get the heating to come on properly. He doesn't like me to keep warm during the day, evidently.


I say we're going to Argentina, but in actual fact, we might end up in Brazil. You see, my recipe book says that brigadeiros are Argentinian, but my mate Wiki seems to think otherwise. Whatever: I bet both countries' people and the good men and women of Australia alike will think I am pushing the boundaries of what can correctly be called a brigadeiro (or indeed a lamington) with today's gift to you, my sweets. But I face all criticism head on. These are yummy little goodies, and took about five minutes to make (plus cooling time), which is more than you can say for any more 'trad' kind of a 'lam'.

Brigadeiros are little chocolate flavoured caramels made from condensed milk, cocoa powder and nothing else. That's it. Two ingredients only. They are, apparently, ubiquitous at children's birthdays in Argentina, and let me just say right now, would be more than welcome at my birthday party too. They are like a homemade Toffee Poppet, and with my lamington-inspired coconut exterior, have taken my respect for condensed milk and things that can be made from it to a whole new level. I remember once wanting to produce 'I♥HFW' pin badges, such was my love for the great gentleman of River Cottage. But 2012's buttons will only read 'I♥♥♥CM', and no doubt take the fashion world by a storm.

I got the idea for these from "Green and Black's" Chocolate Recipes, but have adapted the recipe and method a little, as well as adding coconut (and let's face it, removing the cake - these are lamingtons after all. Though in my eyes only, perhaps!). Please try them: they are fabulous.


This not-particularly-lovely-looking cocoa-caramel is what you have after completing stage
one of the recipe. Fear not: your Brigadeiro Lamingtons will end up looking just fine, I promise.


Brigadeiro Lamingtons

You will need:

1 can of condensed milk
2 tbsp cocoa powder
4 tbsp dessicated coconut

  1. Over a low heat, in a medium saucepan, combine the first two ingredients. Stir occasionally until the mixture boils, and then mix constantly until it comes together and forms a ball. Be careful. It will get quite hot. This will take less than ten minutes, by the way, and you do not need a sugar thermometer. Easy peasy!
  2. Allow to cool until you can touch the chocolate-brown caramel without burning yourself. Then, pinch off chunks of mixture and roll them into small balls between the palms of your hands.
  3. Next, roll the balls in the coconut. If they are still warm-ish, it should stick easily. If they have cooled slightly too much (it's January, after all...), grease your palms with a little butter when rolling the remainder of the brigadeiros, and the coconut should adhere a little better.
  4. Allow to cool completely and eat.

7 comments:

  1. Wow I'm not surprised they're so popular, these sound YUM!

    ReplyDelete
  2. If you cook the cocoa/condensed milk mix slightly less - ie til it's coming together into a mass but still quite liquid - you can then pour it over cupcakes as the best fudge icing ever.
    I have lots of lamington ideas but am tragically too busy for baking at the moment. For instance: chocolate cherry lamingtons - chocolate cherry cake sandwiched with cherry jam and then dipped and rolled as usual. Marshmallow lamingtons - three layers of homemade marshmallows, vanilla with strawberry or raspberry sandwiched in the middle, then dipped and rolled (OK, it's not VERY lamingtony, but whatever, it would be good). Rose and grapefruit lamingtons - just because those two go so well together - with the cake soaked in rosewater and grapefruit syrup, and using white chocolate.
    Curse my lack of free time!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yum! So easy and good. What else could you roll them in? Not that coconut isn't delicious, but I wonder...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi there!
    I was serching for easter recipes when I found your post about brigadeiro. So, to be clear, it´s a brazilian recipe. I know that because i´m brasilian. That´s a recipe for birthday parties, but, how you just sad, it´s so good that we don´t need an excuse to cook it. Hahaha. I see a lot of movies when sad girls eat icecream to cure the loneless. In Brazil, we cook brigadeiro to eat with a spoon.

    But I noticed that one very important ingredient was left behind: granulado instead of the coconut that you used. At the end, our brigadeiros look like this:
    http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSu59HFsykVjcaGuXQzJLNZGN2U_uJM8hPpuIeAxqKPftJ-TCqZvFd0mTaw

    Excuse me for my poor english. I hope that informations worth somenthing :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh, I forgot to mention:
    We add one spoon of butter in recipe. Roll the balls will be easier.

    ReplyDelete
  6. As a Brazilian, I gotta agree with Celise. Brigadeiros ARE from Brazil.
    It is better if you add 1 tablespoon of butter while cooking the recipe.
    Greasing you palm hands with a little butter makes rolling easieer.
    And instead of coconut, use chocolate srinkles.
    Enjoy it!

    ReplyDelete

That's what he said.

Related Posts with Thumbnails