Pé de moleque (, lit. 'Brat's foot') is a traditional candy from Brazil. It is made of peanuts and rapadura or molasses. The candy is prepared by mixing roasted, peeled peanuts with melted brown sugar, with or without the addition of macerated peanuts as well. The mixture is gently stirred over low heat until it gets close to crystallizing. Then the mixture is placed on a plain stone or metal surface (preferably thinly oiled with butter to ease removal) in pieces similar in size to cookies. This traditional preparation results in soft, irregularly-shaped sweets of a dark brown color. Softness results from the incorporation of peanut oil. There is a derivation of the candy in the version of a cake, common to festa juninas from places in the Brazilian Northeast. Pé de moleque cake is also called Bolo preto (black cake), in which cashews can replace peanuts, rapadura is kept and puba (fermented cassava mass) and other ingredients.

Etymology

The name pé de moleque has two hypotheses for its origin:

History

One of the first references to this sweet in Brazil is found in the book Doceiro Nacional (National bakery cookbook). In this book you can find two recipes: pé de moleque prepared with sugar and prepared with rapadura. Pé de moleque appeared in the mid-16th century, with the arrival of sugar cane in Brazil. In 2008, the city of Piranguinho made the world's largest pé de moleque.