Brazilian Lemonade

I was browsing through recipes last night over at Our Best Bites, and came across on for Brazilian Lemonade.

I lived in Brazil for over a year.

I have to admit, I never had Brazilian Lemonade.

I did try it at Tucano's, however, and it is very good!

But I never had it in Brazil.

So, of course, this recipe was screaming my name because I was dying to know what makes regular lemonade, "Brazilian Lemonade".

Well, there is a secret, and I should have guessed it...

Sweetened Condensed Milk.

They use it for EVERYTHING in Brazil.

Almost every dessert requires sweetened condensed milk.

They use it for frosting, cake filling, docinhos, pancakes syrup, etc.

I lived in Pelotas, Brazil for over 6 months and they are the capital of Brazilian sweets!

Now that I know the secret, I can't wait to try it!

Here's the recipe:

Brazilian Lemonade
4 juicy limes (try and find ones with thin, smooth skins; they’re the juiciest and the thin skin cuts down on the chance of your drink being bitter)
1 c. sugar
6 c. cold water
6 Tbsp. sweetened condensed milk
Mix cold water and sugar very well and chill until ready to use. This step can be done ahead of time.
Wash limes thoroughly with soap (I just use hand-dishwashing soap or regular hand soap); you need the soap to get the wax and pesticides off of the limes because you’re using the WHOLE lime, baby. Cut the ends off the limes and then cut each lime into 8ths.
Place 1/2 of the limes in your blender.
Add 1/2 of the sugar water, place the lid on your blender, and pulse 5 times. Place a fine-mesh strainer over a pitcher (the one you’ll serve the lemonade in) and pour the blended mixture through the strainer and into the pitcher. Use a spoon to press the rest of the liquid into the pitcher. Dump the pulp and stuff in the strainer into the trash. Repeat with remaining limes and sugar water. Add sweetened condensed milk; DO NOT leave this step out unless you will die of a horrible sweetened condensed milk allergy because this is the secret ingredient! You may want to taste test it at this point; I used giant, thick-skinned limes tonight and didn’t test it and it came out a little bitter. If it’s bitter, just add some more sugar and maybe a little more milk.
Serve immediately over lots of ice. This does not keep well, so don’t make this in advance (although you can cut the limes, mix the sugar water, and measure the sweetened condensed milk in advance). Serves 4, although I can pretty much guarantee you that people will want more; I usually plan on 1 1/2 servings at LEAST per person.
Recipe by Our Best Bites

I can't wait to try out this recipe, and dig out some of my other favorites from Brazil!