Sugar Free Brazilian Brigadeiro Meringue

Brigadeiro is a classic sweet in Brazil.

It is made from condensed milk and chocolate and is rolled into a ball and covered in chocolate sprinkles. These are sold everywhere. Even gas stations have little platters selling these for 50cents.

This dessert, which was given to me by my mother-in-law (yes she is Brazilian), is an adaptation of this brigadeiro, but into a large creamy frozen dessert.

It is composed of three layers.

The first is the brigadeiro layer.
On top you can either add sliced strawberries or grapes. I thought grapes sounded like an odd fruit to add but I have since learned that it is quite common.
Next you add the meringue/cream layer, and finish it off with some sugar free chocolate shavings.


This dessert can be easily adapted to be sugar free.
The only challenge that I had to deal with was the condensed milk.  In North America it isn't easy to find sugar free condensed milk as it is in Brazil, so I had the unfortunate and lengthy task of making it myself.


The fastest way to make it (which I foolishly didn't do) is by combining splenda, powdered milk, butter, and hot water.  Since I didn't have any powdered milk left, I made it from fresh milk, splenda, and butter.  Stirring stirring stirring, it wasn't reducing at all.  Finally I added about 1 1/2 spoons of corn starch (maizena) which thickened it up a bit.  I still kept on stirring. Overall I was at my stove for 1 hour and the end result tasted good, but still too liquidy.

The cream is basically thick cream (the one in the can), which is whipped into an egg white and sugar peaks.

For me, once I added the cream, the stiff peaks completely fell apart. Next time I may have to whip the cream, then whip the egg white, and then fold them into each other.

Once all the layers are made, you actually FREEZE the dessert so that it sets.  Then while you serve dinner you can remove it from the freezer and let it defrost a little so that by dessert time it will be ready to eat!

For a first attempt I think it went quite well.  I would recommend if you are making this for personal enjoyment, make mini ramekins because each time you defrost then refreeze can lead to increased bacteria to your dessert.

Re attempt on the Sugar Free Strawberry Meringue

Attempt #2:

I made two changes for this version of the meringue.

First, I used 4 egg whites because the 2 in the previous recipe were clearly not enough.

I also added the sweetener at an earlier stage of whisking but I still got stiff peaks.

**Note: Stiff peaks are just after the soft peak. As I learned, a soft peak is when you turn the whisk at it makes a curl, a stiff peak is just a few seconds afterwards and when you flip the whisk, the foam remains immobile**


I placed this in the oven where it still maintained a nice volume....unfortunately once I removed the rack, it was golden, but FLAT again.  Still need to invest in some Cream of Tartar. See if that helps.

My second change which was really great was making the chantilly (whipped cream) from fresh cream (35% fat).  I was able to make a really great and creamy chantilly.  The only thing I realized afterwards, is that it could have used a bit of Splenda to sweeten it up.  It wasn't terrible because of the sweetness of the strawberries, but still. I wanted just a bit more to make it a great sweet dessert.


Overall attempt #2 was improved. I still want to try the egg whites with cream of tartar, so stay tuned for attempt #3.