Brigadeiros! Let’s eat em’. Let’s love em’. Let’s talk about em’!

But let’s do the talking part first. Cause I’ve got a question! Do y’all know what’s what in the world of brigadeiros? If not, read on! A brigadeiro is a Brazilian chocolate bonbon that was created in the 1940’s. It’s super popular in Brazil and Portugal, and according to one of my Brazilian girlfriends, they’re always served at birthday parties. Birthday bonbons?! Uh, yeeeeeeah! I could so get down with that.

These little candies are traditionally made by simple mixing sweetened condensed milk, butter and cocoa powder together. Then the mixture is heated in a pan on the stove until smooth, sticky, and scoopable. The last part of the brigadeiro process is scooping the mixture and rolling it into little balls, then rolling it in your topping of choice.

On to the love em’ part. This ones easy! Salted peanut butter – chocolate brigadeiros = deep dark chocolate bonbons spiked with sea salt and peanut butter. Oh, and they have a nice chunky layer of salty peanuts on the outside, too. In love, yet?

And what was the last part… oh yeah! Eat em’. Annnnnnnd, go!

Salted Peanut Butter – Chocolate Brigadeiros – Baker by Nature 

Makes about 20 (1 teaspoon sized) bonbons

Ingredients:

(1) 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk

3 tablespoons salted peanut butter

1 tablespoon salted butter

3 1/2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup chopped salted spanish peanuts for rolling the chocolate in

Instructions:

In a small sauce pan combine the condensed milk, the peanut butter, butter, and cocoa powder. Bring the mixture to a gentle simmer over medium heat and cook – stirring constantly – until thick and almost taffy like; about 10 minutes. Remove pan from heat, scoop dough into a heat proof bowl, and allow the mixture to cool for at least one hour; it needs to firm up. Once firm and scoopable, make tiny 1 teaspoon scoops of the dough, roll them in your (buttered) hands, and then roll in the chopped peanuts. Continue until all the dough is left. Eat right away, or place in the fridge until needed.