Discover 15 super traditional sweets from different regions of Brazil

Brazil, as we know, has a very rich gastronomic culture. Every corner of our country, from the Northeast to Minas Gerais, passing through the Amazon and the interior of São Paulo and the European colonies in the south, has a typical mouth-watering dish.

In this post, the awesome.club presents 15 traditional sweets from Brazilian regions for you to get to know our culinary heritage so rich and tasty.

Get ready for a delicious culinary journey!

in Minas Gerais and Pernambuco this sweet bears the same name as the creator, who would be Manezinho Araújo, an artist from Pernambuco who had a famous Northeastern restaurant in Rio de Janeiro, where he received several celebrities of the time, such as Carmem Miranda. In the South, this recipe is known as Chico Balanceado.

This sweet consists of three layers, one with caramelized banana, the second with cream and the third with meringue. Check out the full recipe here.

Chuvisco, also known as pingo de ouro, is a typical Brazilian egg-based sweet, of Portuguese origin that was for a long time considered a postcard of the city of Rio de Janeiro. Campos do Goytacazes, where the famous confectioner Mulata Teixeira lived, who, in turn, received this recipe and passed it on to other women, popularizing the delicacy. This dessert was registered in the Cultural and Intangible Heritage of the Municipality of Campos dos Goytacazes.

It’s not a simple recipe to make; it takes patience and practice to correctly follow the steps of the recipe (learn more here) and hit the sweet spot for the ‘drips’.

Of German origin, the cuca has become very popular in South region🇧🇷 Basically, this dessert is a cake topped with a crunchy farofa and can be filled with the most diverse flavors, adapting to our Brazilian ingredients — for example, cuca stuffed with guava paste (recipe here). The cuca is a good choice to accompany coffee.

Sweet chorizo ​​is a typical dessert of the North East🇧🇷 With an intense flavor, it takes time and patience to balance the flavors of such controversial ingredients, such as blood and lard. To add sweetness to this delicacy, rapadura honey, cashew nuts and spices are added (check the recipe here). The flavor of this candy is similar to the ‘pé-de-moleque’.

This sweet is not so popular among the new generations, but it is still present at parties in the large northern river on the feast of Saint John.

Very popular throughout Brazil, mocotó jelly is a calorie dessert, but as long as it is not consumed in excess, it can bring benefits, as collagen is released during the cooking stage (see the entire step-by-step here). Although the method of preparation of this recipe is complicated, the ingredients are accessible and economical.

The furrundú is a typical dessert of cuiabá (Mato Grosso) and also from the region wetland, and has papaya as its main ingredient, combined with brown sugar, ginger, cloves and cinnamon (full recipe here).

Mariola is a typical Brazilian sweet made with bananas, guava or cashew in the form of tablets. It is a super traditional delicacy, which, for many people, brings back childhood memories. The city of Rio Bonito (RJ) is famous for the production of this sweet and was once considered the “capital of mariola”.

It is a typical delicacy of the state of Mato Grosso, made with roasted corn, sugar and cinnamon. It is a type of powdered paçoca served in paper cones or plastic pots that can be combined with ice cream, milk or simply eaten with your hands, in handfuls – just be careful not to choke on the candy. Check out the recipe here.

Tareco is a typical Brazilian sweet made with wheat flour, eggs and sugar. Very traditional, it inspired song lyrics like the one composed by Petrúcio Amorim called Tarelo e Mariola. There are two ways to present the tareco: it can be preparing the dough and taking it to the frying pan as a kind of pancake or roasted in the oven in the shape of cookies or dumplings. The ingredients used in the tareco are similar to those of a common cake, but yeast is not used in the recipe.

Umbu is an abundant fruit in the Northeast, it has a sweet, slightly sour smell and is very nutritious and energetic. Umbuzada is a creamy drink made from umbu (recipe here), but there are people who add manioc flour to make it fuller to the point of replacing a meal. Of great economic and environmental value, umbu is considered a “sacred fruit” in the Northeast, as it resists drought and still bears fruit, being used in savory or sweet dishes.

The musha, as he is known in the Holy Spiritor Lele na Bahia, is a typical sweet of June festivals that is made with hominy, milk, sugar and coconut (full recipe here). It is a cookie with a grainy consistency due to the use of quirera (broken corn), but super soft. This sweet is ideal as an accompaniment to a very hot coffee.

popular delicacy in North Eastalso known as canjica in Southeast🇧🇷 Like the muxá, it has corn as its main ingredient, but in the mugunzá, it is lightly crushed and cooked in a creamy broth of coconut milk and spices.

The word mugunzá is of African origin which translated means “cooked corn”. This candy can be served hot or cold. In addition to dessert, mugunzá also appears in savory recipes as a type of feijoada, but made with hominy instead of beans.

The top hat is a dessert considered intangible heritage of Pernambuco🇧🇷 The ingredients of this sweet are: banana, butter cheese (requeijão do sertão), cinnamon and sugar (full recipe here).

A reference in serving the traditional top hat and a mandatory stop for anyone visiting Recife is the “Restaurante Leite” which was founded in 1882 and is considered the oldest restaurant in operation in Brazil.

Manuê de basin is a traditional delicacy of Paraty (Rio de Janeiro). It is a cake of dense dough that has existed since colonial times, when the recipe was adapted to use the ingredients available at the time, such as molasses (a by-product of sugar manufacturing). including being used as a natural sweetener in place of sugar. See the full recipe for this dessert here.

Alfenim is a dry white sugar dough, an old recipe of Arab origin that was once very traditional in Portugal. Here in Brazil, with Portuguese influences, the dessert also became popular, being consumed mainly at Divino parties, in cities like Pirenópolis (GO) and Montanhas (RN). On these occasions, the candy dough is molded into shapes that refer to religious symbols.

The candy modeling culture is disappearing and the appearance of Alfenins is increasingly rare even in June or religious parties where candy was traditionally served.

Follow the recipe step by step here.

Are these sweets known in your region? Would you like to try any of these desserts? Tell us!