Chocolate Covered Brigadeiro

We are having a chocolate party at work tomorrow and we are all supposed to bring in some type of chocolate to share. I finally decided to bring in Brigadeiro. I first learned about Brigadeiro several years ago after my sister's Brazilian friend told her about it. Then, this past November, I was in Brazil for my honeymoon and I rediscovered it.

Brigadeiro is all over Brazil and it is really good. Not only can you find it at any cafe, but young women walk around the cities with plastic containers filled with Brigadeiro and they sell the delicious chocolate candies to people walking down the street.

The basic Brigadeiro recipe contains only sweetened condensed milk, cocoa powder and a small amount of butter. The butter is optional. I wanted to experiment with the recipe and make it a little bit richer and more chocolatey, so for this version I added a large spoonful of chocolate chips and vanilla extract. I read somewhere that the sweetened condensed milk sold in Brazil is sweeter than the milk sold in America so I also added a little bit of extra sugar. To finish off my brigadeiro I decided to dip each candy in melted chocolate. I really wanted cover the chocolate covered brigadeiro in chocolate sprinkles but I was unable to find any that were made from real chocolate. I would like to find real chocolate sprinkles and make these again. It would also be fun to experiment with rolling the chocolate covered brigadeiro in finely chopped toasted nuts, or toasted coconut. I may feature another version of brigadeiro in the future!

Here is my version.

Ingredients
1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup bittersweet, good quality, chocolate chips (I used Ghiradelli)
3.5 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions
Melt all of the ingredients together in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir constantly, for about 10 minutes, until the mixture begins to thicken and stick together. Remove from heat and pour into a buttered, glass dish. Once mixture has cooled it is ready to roll into balls. I like to wear gloves when I do this but you can use your bare hands if you prefer. Coat your hands/gloves with some butter and begin rolling mixture into small, truffle sized balls. Lay rolled balls on parchment paper. After you roll all of the batter into balls, you can dip them in melted chocolate.