Name: Pão de Queijo
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 50 min
Yield: 6 Servings
Ingredients: Milk: 160ml; oil: 90ml; Tapioca flour: 360g; Parmesan cheese: 1 cup; Mozzarella cheese: 1/2 cup; Eggs: 2; Salt: 1 tsp

Ingredients

160ml Milk

best use full-fat milk

90ml oil

can use olive oil or replace with 150g of melted butter

360g Tapioca flour

1 cup Parmesan cheese

can be replace with Gauda

1/2 cup Mozzarella cheese

can be replace with any other soft goat chese

2 Eggs

1 tsp Salt

Directions

If you didn’t try Pão de Queijo, the Brazilian cheese bread, you should, they are amazing.

I had my first Pão de Queijo in Belo Horizonte which is the capital of Minas Gerais, home of the best Pão de Queijo in Brazil.

Ever since then I keep making these amazing crispy Gluten free cheese buns at any occasion, kids love it, it’s great for breakfast and you just can’t have enough of them.

Pão de Queijo batter

There is no wheat flour in Pão de Queijo, the main ingredient is Tapioca flour.

Tapioca is a strange kind of flour, when mixed with the warm milk and oil, the texture becomes very sticky, resemble a bubblegum flexibility.

I highly recommend working with a stand mixer unless you want to get a good workout, this dough is highly strong and when we are adding the eggs we need them to be fully incorporated.

The work process reminds me a bit of the French Pâte à Choux dough.

The process is the same, we heat up wet ingredients and mix it with the dry ones, mixing constantly while adding the eggs into the batter in order to create the desired texture.

Pão de queijo

Say cheese

The original recipe of Pão de Queijo deems for “Queijo Minas Curado” which is a soft cheese from Minas Gerais.

For those of us not living in Minas Gerais, there are other options, every semi-firm cheese will do, the Monterey jack cheese, kashkaval cheese or even cheddar cheese are great.

It is popular to use also mozzarella cheese (great texture) and parmesan cheese for the strong cheesy flavor.

Baking Pão de Queijo

Baking is done on 180°c/360°F for about 30 minutes. the little balls will puff in the oven so keep them a few inches apart.

They don’t have to be golden brown, a pale white is the traditional color, however I like them crispy golden brown color, but it’s a matter of taste.

If the dough is a bit runny when you try to set them on the baking pan, you can refrigerate the batter for about 20 minutes, this will stabilize the dough and you will be able to make perfect balls.

Pão de queijo

(Visited 982 times, 1 visits today)

Steps

1 Done	Boil the Milk and Oil Combine the milk, oil, and salt in a saucepan, Whisk Occasionally bring it to a gentle boil over medium heat. As it comes to a simmer remove from the heat and add the tapioca flour, stir vigorously until dough starts to incorporate.
2 Done 5 minutes	Mixing the Dough Transfer the dough to the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Start mixing the dough on a medium speed for 1 min, add the eggs one at a time until fully incorporated, add the cheese and mix for another minute. At this point I usually let the dough rest for 30 minutes in the fridge, it helps shaping the balls later on since the dough is very sticky however you can skip to next stage as well.
3 Done 30 minutes	Baking the Puffs Preheat the oven to 180°c/360°F . To shape the Puffs, wet your hands with water or oil, spoon the dough onto a baking sheet in, 4cm/2 inch apart (you can also use an ice scream scoop or regular spoon). Bake for 30 minutes until crisp and golden.