Pão de Queijo (Brazilian Cheese Bread)

This is a great little recipe! Brazilians mostly eat it for breakfast or as a snack. The only ingredient that might be hard to find is the sour cassava flour (which we learned about during our trip to the Amazon).  You can order it on www.amazon.com and you may even find it in a Latin grocery store.  Find it.  It's worth it.  Oh, and for those of you that avoid gluten, it's gluten free!

Sour Cassava Flour

These few things are transformed into amazing pão de queijo

The cheese called for in this recipe is Quejo Minas Fresco (fresh cheese traditionally produced in Minas Garais in Brazil). You can definitely substitute other cheeses for it.  I will be experimenting with some different combinations of cheese the next time I make this bread.

Pão de Queijo (Brazilian cheese bread)

1 cup whole milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups sour cassava flour

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups Minas cheese (can substitute parmesan or other cheese)

Ready to be portioned and put in the oven

Preheat oven to 350. Grease or line pan with parchment paper.  Put oil, milk and salt in a pan over medium heat and whisk  just until it starts to bubble.  Remove from heat and immediately add the cassava flour and mix well. Put the dough in the bowl of a mixer and (use paddle attachment) beat on med until dough smooths and it's cool enough to touch. Whisk eggs in a bowl and then slowly add them to the mixer while it's running. Add the cheese and continue mixing until incorporated.  The dough is going to be very sticky.  I use two spoons to portion and place on the baking sheet. You can also use an ice cream scoop (probably easier).  I also saw a recipe where the dough was placed in a mini muffin pan to cook.  Whatever works for you. Bake until the outsides are dry and they get a little color on them.  My oven is terrible and I had to cook them for almost an hour.  I imagine if I had a good oven, it would probably be closer to 30 minutes.

 Let cool a few minutes and enjoy.

When I made these, I made one baking sheet of them and portioned the rest of the dough onto another baking sheet and let freeze.  Once they were frozen, I transferred them to a freezer bag and threw them back in the freezer.  That way I can easily pull out a few to bake when the mood strikes me. They are really best served warmed, right after coming out of the oven.

Ready for the freezer