A peanut fudge shaped and tinted to look like a miniature caju — the cashew fruit (the fleshy apple, not the nut) whose name it borrows. Ground peanuts are cooked with condensed milk and chocolate into a brigadeiro-family dough, rolled into little curved teardrops, rolled in sugar or chocolate sprinkles, and finished with a whole cashew nut pressed into the wide end to mimic the fruit's protruding seed. It is a fixed member of the Brazilian birthday-party and Festa Junina sweet table, lined up beside brigadeiro and beijinho.
Cajuzinho is part of the doces de festa (party sweets) family that orbits the brigadeiro, the condensed-milk fudge that dates to 1940s Rio de Janeiro and reshaped Brazilian home confectionery around Nestlé's leite condensado. Where brigadeiro is chocolate and beijinho is coconut, cajuzinho is the peanut member of the same condensed-milk lineage, given its distinctive form and name in homage to the caju, the cashew, a fruit native to Brazil's Northeast coast and a powerful national symbol. No single inventor is recorded; it spread as a homemade festa staple through the second half of the 20th century.
Soft, dense, and intensely sweet, with the deep roasted-peanut flavor running through a fudgy chocolate base — somewhere between a brigadeiro and peanut butter set firm. The outside is faintly crunchy from its sugar or sprinkle coat; the whole cashew on the end adds a clean, buttery nut crunch against the chewy body. Small, two or three bites, eaten from a tiny paper cup. Rich enough that one or two is the serving.
It is cooked exactly like brigadeiro: ground peanuts, condensed milk, and cocoa or chocolate stirred over low heat until the mass thickens and pulls cleanly away from the pan bottom (the ponto, around 105°C), then cooled until firm enough to shape. The peanut paste and condensed milk concentrate as water evaporates, while Maillard browning and caramelization deepen flavor and set the chewy texture on cooling. Stop too early and it will not hold the teardrop shape; cook too far and it turns hard and grainy. The cashew is pressed in last, raw or lightly toasted, so it stays crunchy against the soft fudge.
Variations
The classic is peanut with chocolate, rolled in sugar (or chocolate sprinkles) with a cashew on top. Some make it without cocoa for a pale, pure-peanut cajuzinho, sometimes tinted to look more like the orange-yellow cashew fruit. The coating varies — granulated sugar, sprinkles, or chopped peanuts. A few cooks skip the whole cashew and simply shape and roll the peanut fudge. It sits in the same lineup as brigadeiro (chocolate) and beijinho (coconut) at any festa.
On the Palate
Where Cajuzinho sits in the Brazilian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 25How it's made
5 steps · 40 min
- 15 min
Grind roasted peanuts to a fine meal or paste.
- 212 min
Cook the ground peanuts with condensed milk and cocoa over low heat, stirring constantly.
- 310 min
Continue until the mixture thickens and pulls away cleanly from the pan bottom, then let it cool until firm.
Watch outCook to the ponto — the mass thickens and, when you drag the spoon, briefly bares the pan bottom before flowing back; stop before that and it won't hold the teardrop, go past and it turns hard and grainy on cooling.
- 48 min
Roll small portions into curved teardrop shapes and coat in sugar or chocolate sprinkles.
- 55 min
Press a whole cashew nut into the wide end of each and set them in paper cups.
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