the classic recipe
Brazilian cheese bread (pão de queijo)
Authentic Minas cheese bread is the smell of a bakery on a Sunday morning. A thin, lightly golden crust outside; a soft, elastic, slightly chewy crumb inside with pockets of melted cheese. Naturally gluten-free (cassava starch). Straight from the oven is the complete experience — at room temperature it loses its soul. The difference between amateur and professional is the balance of sour starch (crispness and spring) plus sweet starch (tenderness) — you cannot use just one.
yields 30 servings·77 kcal per serving·cuisine Brazilian
The traditional recipe
Instructions
Preheat oven to 200 °C (390 °F) conventional. Grease a baking sheet or line with parchment paper.
In a medium saucepan, combine 125 ml whole milk, 60 ml water, and 60 ml unsalted butter. Heat over medium heat until just boiling.
In a large bowl, whisk together 200 g sour cassava starch (polvilho azedo), 50 g sweet cassava starch (polvilho doce), and 1 teaspoon salt. Pour the boiling liquid over the starches in a thin stream, stirring vigorously with a wooden spoon — the starches will scald and form a lumpy, sticky dough.
Let the dough cool until you can handle it comfortably, about 10–15 minutes. Do not skip this step: adding eggs to hot dough will scramble them.
Add 2 eggs one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. The dough will become smoother and sticky.
Fold in 200 g grated Minas meia-cura cheese until evenly distributed. Taste and adjust salt as needed (the cheese is already salty).
With lightly oiled hands, shape the dough into balls of about 30 g each (roughly the size of a ping-pong ball). Place on the prepared baking sheet with 3–4 cm between each ball.
Bake for 10 minutes at 200 °C; reduce to 180 °C and bake for another 20–25 minutes until golden brown and firm. Do not open the oven during the first 15 minutes.
Remove from the oven and serve immediately. The cheese breads will deflate slightly as they cool — this is normal and expected.
Who this dish is for
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