Baba de Camelo or Camel’s Drool is a mousse type dessert that combines cooked condensed milk and eggs. The name is possibly due to its camel colour and slightly runny texture. It’s very popular across Portugal, from the more traditional tascas to your high-end restaurants, and one of my favourite Portuguese puddings. It’s sweet but not too sweet, light and perfect for the summer months. With the bonus that’s super easy to make at home and it only requires three ingredients.
To say that the Portuguese are inventive with food names is an understatement. From starter to dessert there’s always a humorous name or a reference to an inedible object. Some examples are the tempura green beans baptized as ‘Peixinhos da Horta’ meaning ‘Little Fish From the Garden’ or the bacalhau dish ‘Roupa Velha’ which literally translates as ‘Old Rags’. In the dessert field there’s no better representative than ‘Baba de Camelo’ which means ‘Camel’s Drool’ in Portuguese.
Baba de Camelo Recipe
For this recipe you will only need three ingredients, eggs, cooked condensed milk and leaf gelatine. In Portugal you will find cooked condensed milk in most supermarkets labelled as ‘leite condensado cozido’. For those in the UK, Nestlé’s Carnation Caramel is what you are looking for! In Brazil it’s quite common to cook your own tins of condensed milk in the pressure cook, so that’s an option if you are experienced with pressure cooks.
Alternatively, you can use Argentinian dulce de leche, which has similar taste and texture. I topped mine with an almond praline for some texture, but that’s totally optional. You can also add some berries, crumbled biscuits, chocolate, cinnamon powder or any nuts of your preference.