Friday 20 December 2013

Pizza de Brigadeiro (Brazilian Chocolate Pizza) with Fresh Strawberries & Cream Cheese


I've always been somewhat enchanted by the idea of a chocolate pizza, although I had never made one before I made this. It seems that dessert pizzas are very popular Brazil - even their fast food pizza franchises offer sweet pizzas. I read online that Dominoes in Sao Paolo has a chocolate pizza and a banana pizza, so dessert pizza was definitely high on my list of things to try this month.

The dough recipe makes enough dough for 3 big pizzas, but the topping quantity is just for 1 pizza. So you can freeze the other 2/3 of the fresh dough, or use it to make a couple of savoury pizzas for dinner to go with your dessert pizza. The toppings are completely rich and decadent, so you'll probably only need one slice!

The one thing I don't know though - is whether Brazilians eat them hot or cold? I googled it and couldn't find any answers, so I served mine cold for convenience. I think it would be really nice either way though. Any Brazilians out there want to enlighten me?



Ingredients

Pizza Dough
2 tsp dried yeast
1/2 cup warm water
2 tbsp olive oil
2 cups room temperature water
1kg plain flour
1.5 tsp salt

Brigadeiro Topping
400ml vegan condensed milk
3 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp margarine
1 punnet strawberries
Vegan cream cheese
Chocolate sprinkles

To Make
1. Whisk the yeast with 1/2 cup of warm water and set it aside for 10 minutes until foamy on top.
2. Add the 2 cups water & olive oil and whisk to combine. Then add the salt and all the flour, mixing gently. Flour up your hands and start mixing the dough with your hands until it comes together. It should be dry enough not to stick to your fingers, wet enough to stay together in a ball. If you need to, add more flour or water to get it to the right consistency.
3. Flour a benchtop and turn the dough out. Knead for 10 minutes, at which point the dough should be smooth and springy to touch. Wash, dry and lightly oil the mixing bowl. Return the dough ball to the bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Leave in a warm spot to rise for 2 hours. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
4. After 2 hours, punch the dough down and cut into 3 pieces, if you're saving the other two then wrap them up in plastic wrap and freeze them. Roll one piece out into a big flat disc and place on an oiled baking tray. Bake for 10-15 minutes, until lightly golden on top. Take out of the oven and set aside.
5. Whisk the condensed milk and cocoa powder in a pan and put it over a medium heat. Cook for about 10-15 minutes, until the mixture thickens and starts to pull away from the edges of the pan. Remove from the heat and stir the margarine through.
6. Spread over the pizza base. Top with slices of cream cheese and wedges of fresh strawberries. Sprinkle the edges with chocolate sprinkles. Serve hot or cold.

Also part of the Vegan Virtual Linky Potluck.




8 comments:

  1. Who wouldn't love a dessert pizza with this combo on top, it looks totally delicious. I wonder if our pizza shops will ever offer sweet pizzas. Wishing you a Merry Christmas and very Happy New Year Keely, look forward to catching your blog posts next year. Enjoy the summer break.

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  4. Hi Keely! Usually we eat them hot, just like the other pizzas, but it's also delicious to eat the left-overs cold. And of course, there are some ice-cream pizzas out there there that are naturally cold. It goes according to your taste too. Some Brazilians don't even touch the sweet pizzas.

    You can also try with normal cheese. The taste of the melted cheese and the hot chocolate give the pizza a very exotic flavor. It's not for everyone, but for me, it's delicious. In the first try, it might taste really weird, that's why I would suggest to taste it two or three times, to make sure you either like it or not.

    It depends on the places you go and what flavor the pizza is. Some don't put any cheese in the sweet pizzas, but it's not hard to find places that makes this distinct fusion.

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  5. Oooh, that looks delish! I would love it cold!

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  6. On a trip to Brazil, I was served a fruit pizza that was cooked. They did not use mozzarella cheese but a Brazilian cheese. Does anyone happen to know what that cheese might be? Also does anyone know of a recipe for a baked true Brazilian fruit pizza?

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    1. Hello! Perhaps it was catupiry, which has a creamy consistency, kinda like cream cheese. It’s commonly put on it here.

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  7. This looks good, I want to try to make one for my project.

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