Brazilian Cheese Bread (Pao de Queijo) – Fast, Fun, and Inadvertently Gluten-Free

Brazilian cheese bread is very easy to make, and features a chewy, cheesy, bready center, encased in a beautiful, thin, pastry crust. It also happens to be gluten-free, thanks to it being root-rich. These are made using tapioca flour, which not only makes them grain-free, but is also responsible for their very unique texture.

Tapioca flour is pretty easy to find these days, and I get mine from a guy named Bob, who runs a mill, but if your local market doesn’t carry it, I recommend finding some online. There are lots of fun recipes you can make in addition to these, like homemade tapioca pearls for bubble tea, just to give one enticing example.

As I mentioned in the video, you can easily adjust the thickness of your dough by adding another splash of milk, or more tapioca flour depending on what you're into. Some folks swear by a thinner batter, which they bake in muffin tins, but to me those come out too much like popovers, and don’t have the same chewy, cheesy center.

Happily, Brazilian cheese bread ingredients are fairly inexpensive, which means you can play around with a few batches, and see for yourself. No matter what you end up with, I really do hope you give these a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for 24 Brazilian Cheese Breads:

(Please note, I only made half a batch)

 2 1/4 cups tapioca flour, plus more as needed to adjust texture

1/2 cup lightly flavored olive oil and/or vegetable oil

2/3 cup milk

1 teaspoon kosher salt

2 ounces freshly grated mozzarella (about 1/2 cup)

2 ounces freshly and finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano* (about a cup unpacked)

2 large beaten eggs

pinch of cayenne

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