Pão de queijo
Cheese bread puffs
Brazilian cheese bread: crisp, chewy cheese puffs made with cassava starch
Pão de queijo comes from Minas Gerais, where every café and grandmother's kitchen has a tray in the oven for breakfast or afternoon coffee. Made with cassava starch (polvilho) instead of wheat flour, the little rolls are crisp and golden outside and stretchy, cheesy and almost hollow inside. Mineiros use queijo minas meia-cura; a mix of Parmesan-style cheese and mozzarella is the closest match elsewhere. Chef's tip: pour the boiling milk and oil over the starch (escaldar). Scalding cooks part of the starch, and that's what gives the chewy, elastic inside; and use some sour starch (polvilho azedo), which makes them puff up tall.
- Total time
- 45 min
- Difficulty
- easy
- Serves
- 6
Ingredients
- ½ cup whole milk
- ¼ cup water
- ¼ cup sunflower oil
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 eggsat room temperature, beaten
- 3 ½ oz Parmesan-style hard cheesefinely grated; choose a vegetarian one
- 2 ⅝ oz low-moisture mozzarellafinely grated
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Method
0/8 doneStep 1: Heat the oven to 400°F (350°F fan) and line a large baking tray with baking paper. Put the 5 ½ oz sour cassava starch (polvilho azedo) and 3 ½ oz tapioca starch (polvilho doce) in a large heatproof bowl and break up any lumps with your fingers.
Step 2: Bring the ½ cup whole milk, ¼ cup water, ¼ cup sunflower oil and 1 tsp salt to a rolling boil in a small pan over a medium heat. Watch it: milk boils over in seconds.
4 minStep 3: Pour the boiling liquid all over the starch at once and stir hard with a wooden spoon. It will look lumpy and patchy, then come together into a sticky, translucent-looking mass. This is the escaldado; it should feel like thick glue.
Step 4: Leave it to cool for 10 minutes, until you can hold your finger in it comfortably. If it's too hot, the eggs will scramble.
10 minStep 5: Add the 2 eggs a little at a time, working each addition in with the spoon or your hand before adding more. At first it seems the dough will never take the egg; keep squeezing and folding and it becomes smooth, soft and sticky, like a thick choux paste.
Step 6: Knead in the 3 ½ oz Parmesan-style hard cheese and 2 ⅝ oz low-moisture mozzarella until evenly mixed. The dough should be soft enough to shape but hold its form. If it's too runny to roll, add a spoon of tapioca starch; if it cracks, add a teaspoon of milk.
Step 7: Oil your hands and roll the dough into balls the size of a walnut (about 25 g each), setting them 4 cm apart on the tray. You can freeze the raw balls at this point and bake from frozen, adding 5–8 minutes.
Step 8: Bake for 22–25 minutes, until well puffed, cracked on top and golden at the edges; don't open the oven in the first 15 minutes or they can sink. They should sound light when tapped. Eat warm, with strong coffee.
25 min
Nutrition per serving
- Calories
- 300 kcal
- Protein
- 9 g
- Carbs
- 33 g
- Fat
- 15 g
- Fibre
- 0 g
Nutrition values are estimates.
KrazyBadal
Good to know
- How long does pão de queijo take?
- About 45 minutes in total: 20 minutes to prepare and 25 minutes to cook.
- How many people does it serve?
- 6 as written. Change the servings above the ingredients and every amount scales to match.
- Is it vegetarian?
- Yes. It has no meat or fish.
- Is it gluten free?
- Yes, as written. Check the labels on stock, sauces and spice mixes, which sometimes contain gluten.
- What can I use instead of whole milk?
- Semi-skimmed milk with 1 tbsp cream per 240ml (1 cup).
- What can I use instead of eggs?
- 1 tbsp ground flaxseed + 3 tbsp water per egg, left for 5 minutes (baking only; vegan).
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