Happy Brazilian Independence Day! Brigadeiro & pão de queijo recipes.

Last Monday, 7 de Setembro, was Brazilian Independence Day. So two nights ago, my friends and I celebrated it with a Brazilian dinner (it was their first), complete with cachaça & caipirinhas, pão de queijo (little cheese balls with the most delectable gummy texture), feijoada (Brazilian national dish), palmito (heart of palm - my very last precious jar I hand-carried back from Brazil, I absolutely love this), and of course...some brigadeiros!

Hand-painted bottle of artesanal cachaça we hand-carried from Parati

Caipirinha de limão

Pão de Queijo - these are seriously 2D4! I could live on these!

Salada de palmito & vinagrete (to accompany the churrasco/barbeque over charcoal)

Xin xim de galinha (we also had moqueca)

Dora the explorer helped us out in rolling out the brigadeiros (typically they are rolled all around in chocolate sprinkles)

Ok, we did not eat these! Earlier in the day, as hubby was trimming the overgrown jasmin bush/hedge in our front garden, he stopped in time to see this gorgeous bird's nest in the vines/hedge, look at the gorgeous little eggs (they look like Easter eggs)! Thankfully he was able to trim around it so that it remained hidden...

Feliz dia da Independência!

Okay, so I've been asked to share what's in a brigadeiro and how to make pães de queijo, I highly recommend giving them a go, they're pretty easy, and both SO yummy! Enjoy!

Pão de Queijo

Ingredients

500g tapioca starch (I buy this in Asian grocery stores)

3 cups of milk

1 cup of oil/butter (I use mostly butter and top up with olive oil)

1tsp of yeast (optional)

1tsp salt

500g grated parmesan/pecorino cheese

4 eggs

Method

1. Bring the milk and oil/butter to the boil in a pot on the stove (stir).
2. Place the tapioca starch in a deep big bowl.
3. Once boiled, slowly add the liquid mixture to the starch, mixing it as you go (I use a large wooden spoon).
4. Add the eggs one by one (mixing in between), and then the rest of the ingredients.
5. Knead the dough (I use my hands) until the dough is homogeneous.
6. Once it is, roll them in little balls and place on a tray, bake at 300 Fahrenheit (or 150 Celsius) for around 25 min. (or until it turns golden). Then, enjoy!

The texture should be crispy/crunchy on the outside, gummy/gooey on the inside....yum! I wrote this from memory, hopefully I remembered it all right! These are best enjoyed whilst hot (straight from the oven, or at least reheated, but also freeze well, so if you wish to freeze them, you can place the rolled pre-baked balls on a baking paper-lined tray, place in the freezer until the balls are hard, then pop them in a ziploc bag and freeze, they can be baked from frozen)

Brigadeiros (the easy/microwave method)

Ingredients

1 can of condensed milk

1tbsp of butter

4tbsp of chocolate powder

1 packet of chocolate sprinkles

Little paper cups

Method

1. Place all ingredients in a deep bowl and mix with a spoon.
2. Place in mirowave on 'high' for 2 minutes, stir, repeat for further 2 min, stir, repeat once more, until it is homogeneous.
3. Remove the mixture from the microwave, and wait for it to cool, roll them into small balls (you may need to 'butter' your hands), roll it in the chocolate sprinkles (preferrably the long kind not little dots, if you know what I mean), place in little paper cup, and enjoy! I'm not sure how many one batch makes, I usually double or triple, and then don't count them, as I end up eating them as I roll them, haha!