Pao de Queijo (Brazilian Cheese Bread)

Pao de Queijo - made February 25, 2018 from Olivia's Cuisine

Having developed a foodie crush now on Brazilian cheese bread, I googled recipes for it literally as soon as I left Pampas that night. It took me awhile to make it as I had to suss out some tapioca flour but I finally got to it. While tapioca flour is available on amazon, like millions of other hard-to-find things, I balked at how expensive it was on amazon and instead turned to my trusty local Ranch 99 Asian grocery store. 

The plus side is it cost a fraction of what it sells for on amazon. The minus side is it takes me forever and 3 days to find anything at Ranch 99 since I don’t know where anything is located and I can’t read anything non-English except for my smattering of Tagalog. And in the interests of brutal honesty, I couldn’t find it on my first trip so I asked my mom, a more regular Ranch 99 shopper than me, to get it for me on her next shopping trip. She eventually found it but even she had to ask someone where it was. Something I didn’t do since I couldn’t find anyone on the floor at the time to help.

But once the tapioca flour was secured, I finally made this recipe. It was surprisingly simple to make. Finding the tapioca flour was harder than mixing this together. Be warned that the dough does get super sticky and difficult to work with. I didn’t even bother trying to hand-shape it with my bare hands, envisioning my fingers getting cemented together with the sticky, pasty, rubbery mass. Instead, I spooned generous dollops of the dough directly into greased but unlined muffin tins. I was a little afraid they would be hard to pry out of the tins after but was pleasantly surprised to find they not only puff and rise during baking but also easily popped right out of the muffin cavities.

The first batch came out a little pale. I baked them for the time suggested in the recipe and they looked fine. The outside was crusty-soft but the inside looked like baked brie. I was afraid that meant they weren’t done because the cheese bread from Pampas had more structure than that so I put them back into the oven to bake another 10 minutes. I finally took them out before they got too brown. The outside was pleasingly crunchy and the inside was warm cheesy gooeyness. These still didn’t have the same texture as the ones from Pampas but they tasted pretty good. These are best eaten warm! While the outside is crusty (it softens after cooling) and the inside is warm molten cheese. These are a good bread-basket option if you want something gluten-free. But seriously, eat them warm. So good that way.

4 cups tapioca flour
1 1/4 cups milk
1/2 cup water
6 tablespoons oil
1 1/2 cups grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup shredded Mozzarella cheese
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons salt

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Combine the milk, water, oil and salt over medium high heat. Add the tapioca flour to the bowl of a stand mixer. Once the milk boils, pour over the flour. Mix flour and milk on medium-high speed until well combined.
3. Add eggs, one at a time, until combined.
4. Add the cheeses, a half cup at a time, until incorporated.
5. Wet your hands and shape the dough into golf-ball size balls. Space evenly on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown and puffed. Serve warm.