Sweet Joy.
In Marcia Joy’s world, it’s not a party without chocolate, and that means brigadeiro. And she wants to introduce new audiences to this Brazilian treat.
While traditional brigadeiro is very sweet and often made with butter, Joy tweaked the recipe and uses Wauwatosa-based Tabal chocolate to create more than 20 “gourmet” variations for her company, Sweet Joy Brigadeiro. They’re gluten-free, and she also offers a vegan option developed with bananas for special orders.
Joy, who speaks Portugese, German, Spanish and English, lives in Milwaukee with her 10-year-old son.
Select Sweet Joy Brigadeiro products are available at Tabal Chocolate in Wauwatosa, and Joy sells at markets around the area, including the Milwaukee County Winter Farmers Market, West Bend Farmers Market, Brookfield Thursday Market, and Chicago Botanic Garden. She also plans to be at Mayfair Mall again this holiday season for a pop-up in November and December. The products also can be ordered from her website, sweetjoychocolate.com.
A bite of Brazil
Brigaderio is a Brazilian tradition. I grew up with it, just like cupcakes here. Everyone knows them in Brazil. If you don’t have a brigaderio at a party, it is not a party.
Language lesson
It’s bree-gah-day-ro. People can’t pronounce it, so I write it out.
A simple sweet
I grew up seeing my mom in the kitchen making them. Bridgadeiro is three simple ingredients. It is condensed milk, cocoa powder and a kind of fat. The fat we (traditionally) use is more butter. Our tradition is also to lick the bowl when mom finishes. It is a lot of fun.
Sparking a passion
I moved to Germany and I had a great experience with my best friend. She switched from marketing to making chocolate. I was just playing with her. My weekends were to spend time with her and learn about chocolate. I loved it, but I didn’t take it seriously.
Building a business
I was a flight attendant and a bilingual secretary. When I moved here, I was making brigadeiro for friends to give as gifts. I needed to start again and make a new life. I was in an office, and I was not happy. A good friend said last year, “Marcia, your brigadeiro is wonderful. You need to take it seriously.”
Bite-size beginning
I started with $10. My ten best dollars of my life. OK, let me make this a profession. They started to sell. I sold out! Every time I sold, I’d turn around and put it into the product and the company.
Making her mark
They are very sweet, but my palate is not the same now as when I was 10. I needed to change it. I was looking for a good chocolate and when I started, I started with a Belgian chocolate. It wasn’t what I wanted. I wanted to change the brigadeiro, and then I met Dan Bieser and tasted Tabal. Perfect.
Her goal
My recipe is 95% organic, because of one ingredient that is difficult to get and costs more. Eventually, I’m making my way to organic. I can do vegan. There is vegan condensed milk, and I make that.
Recipe requests
People ask but I don’t give out the full recipe. I say the secret is Tabal chocolate. It’s not a truffle. Truffles are more hard. The consistency is a little different, like Nutella. I actually make the cream and sell it in jars; that is glutenfree, too. My newest creation is an apple brigadeiro. Instead of caramel, it is brigadeiro covering.
Twist on tradition
The traditional one is just plain chocolate, with plain sprinkles. That’s the Brazilian tradition. From that, we changed it to brigadeiro gourmet.
We don’t use butter, we use another type of fat. The pistachio, that’s not common. I use a special cream, that is not traditional. The chocolate makes the biggest difference. If you add good chocolate, it makes a good brigadeiro. If you use bad chocolate, you can make a bad brigadeiro.
Americans seem a little resistant to the brigadeiro, so I make sandwich cookies, the traditional chocolate chip cookie with the traditional Brazilian brigadeiro cream in the middle. It is decadence in a bite. I also sell it in tubes, which is fun for kids and parties.
Her perfect profession
There are other Brazilians making them here, but not professionally. I had one lady call me when she was here from Florida, she found me and bought $300 worth of brigadeiro. Wow.
When I sold my first brigadeiro, it was hard to give them up. It was like giving away my babies, because it is a lot of work to do them by hand.
What she misses most
Paø de queijo, a kind of cheese bread. We have the flour here, but not the cheese.
Milwaukee meal
I’m a sushi fan. Besides the Friday fish fry, which I love, you’ll find me at a sushi place. I go Monday or Friday afternoons with my son.
Fork. Spoon. Life. explores the everyday relationship that local notables (within the food community and without) have with food. To suggest future personalities to profile, email nstohs@journalsentinel.com.