Pão de Queijo

• Instagram
• TikTok
• YouTube
• Mail

Brazilian cheese bread.

I am so blessed to have Brazilian friends. I’ve always said I felt home when I was at their place, as it is always warm and cozy! Luckily, I get to also taste some of the best foods on this planet, including their simply delicious classic: pão de queijo, or cheese breads. When I first tasted that at my Brazilian friend’s birthday, I really liked it, and I told her. There were about 10 Brazilians, and everyone burst out laughing. It turns out that the word for bread, pão, is pronounced very similarly (to a non-native ear) to another very inappropriate word, but let us skip those details and jump to the recipe! Fortunately, this time it is SO easy! The only excessive step you need to do is to find sour cassava starch (polvilho azedo in Portuguese), which should be accessible in many Portuguese and Brazilian stores.

You can find this recipe’s video on Instagram and on Tiktok.

Ingredients

For 25-30 cheese breads, you need:

• 500g sour cassava starch (polvilho azedo in Portuguese), which you can find in many Portuguese and Brazilian stores
• 150mL water
• 150mL milk
• 150mL vegetable oil
• 3 whole eggs
• 220g shredded cheese (I used mozzarella)
• 30g parmesan cheese for flavor
• Salt

Procedure

Nothing simpler than that!

1. Start by pouring the milk, water and oil in a sauce pan, then bring to heat until the mixture boils. Be careful as the milk might overflow when boiling.
2. In a large bowl, add the cassava starch with some salt and pour the above mixture on top of it. Mix with a wooden spoon to cool down the mixture a bit before using your hands.
3. With your hands, mix to incorporate as much starch as you can with the water, while being careful because of the temperature, then add the 3 eggs.
4. Keep mixing/kneading until you incorporate the eggs in. The mixture will be very sticky, but that is okay. Tip: keep one hand clean to be able to add the ingredients.
5. Finally, add the cheese and mix. Most of the cheese will melt and mix in better with the mixture.
6. Once you are done, clean your hands to move on to forming the balls. Dip your hands in some vegetable oil to prevent the dough from sticking.
7. With a tablespoon, scoop out a small quantity of the dough and use both of your hands to form it into a ball shape. The size should be slightly larger than a table tennis ball. Repeat the process until you finish the dough.
8. At this point, you may proceed to baking or freeze the dough balls for future use. In the latter case, make sure you freeze them in a single layer first before adding them to freezer bags, so that they don’t stick together.
9. For baking, place the dough balls on a baking tray, well separated, as they will almost double in size in the oven. Bake in a preheated oven at 180ºC for 30-40 minutes or until they form a slightly brown crust with golden brown cheese spots.
10. Bom apetite!