Brigadier History
The history of this special Brazilian candy was researched by Solange Peirao, a Nestle Historiographer. A small abstract was published in a Brazilian magazine called “Super Interessante”, in 1999.
Her research showed that this candy was created
as an election marketing tool.
In 1945, an election year, two candidates were
disputing Brazilian presidential elections. One was Brigadier Eduardo Gomes
from the National Democratic Union Party, the other was General Eurico
Gaspar Dutra, from the Social Democratic Party.
General Dutra was very popular and had Mr. Getulio
Vargas support, Mr Vargas was the president at that time. On the other
hand, Brigadier Gomes had women on his side. Mr. Gomes was tall, charming
and single. His campaign phrase was: “Vote on Brigadier, he is single and
handsome”. His female support staff decided to create a candy for him.
They mixed condensed milk with powder cocoa and made “the Brigadier candy”.
This candy was sold to help raising campaign funds.
Brigadier candy became very popular, however
it was not enough to make him win elections. General Dutra received 55%
of the votes and Brigadier Gomes just 35%. Mr. Dutra became president in
1946.
. Nowadays this candy is still popular. Every
birthday party specially children birthday parties have to have “Brigadier”.
It is a very well known Brazilian candy.
In Portuguese its name is “Brigadeiro”.
Brigadier recipe:
Ingredients:
1 can of sweetened condensed milk.
1 tablespoon of margarine.
2 tablespoons of powder cocoa (i.e. Nesquik –
Nestle).
5 oz. of chocolate sprinkles.
20-25 mini bake cups.
Instructions:
Mix all ingredients in a pot. Cook in low (or
3) stirring for more or less 20 minutes or until it get ticker (you can
see the bottom of the pot). Don’t use plastic utensils to stir. A wood
spoon is preferable.
Grease a plate using margarine and put
the cooked mix on it.
Let it cool.
Then put chocolate sprinkles in a plate.
Grease your hands using margarine and make little
balls with the mix. Pass each ball on the chocolate sprinkles and put the
brigadier in a mini-bake cup.
This recipe makes about 25 brigadiers.
Contributed by Christianne Gioppo