Pão De Queijo, delicious cheese buns for a perfect snack that will make your taste buds samba.
By Simone Van Den Berg
Pao De Queijo, tasty cheese buns that make the perfect snack or treat, and that will make your taste buds samba! 
Brazil, home of the worldcup football in a short time is of course the perfect choice for this month’s Daring Bakers. I had never heard of these cheesy bites before but they looked good, the recipe sounded simple and didn’t take a whole day (as some of the challenges tend to do!) so I figured let’s go for it.
These little darlings puff up nicely and the taste delicious, too. I’ve seen examples of people making these and filling them with all kinds of delicious stuff and I can see how that would be something awesome to experiment with.
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Pão De Queijo: Brazilian Cheese Buns
- Total Time: 55 mins
- Yield: 20 1x
Description
Pão De Queijo, delicious cheese buns for a perfect snack that will make your taste buds samba.
Ingredients
- 125 gr tapioca starch
- 65 ml full fat milk
- 10 gr butter
- 1/4 tsp salt (or more depending on the saltiness of your cheese0
- 60 gr Monterey Jack Cheese or another cheese of your liking, coursely grated
- 1 egg
Instructions
- Heat milk, butter, and salt in a small sauce pan until it comes to a boil. Watch closely as it may boil over. Remove from heat and set aside.
- Sift tapioca starch into a large bowl.
- Pour the boiled (hot) mixture over the tapioca and start stirring with a fork. The milk mixture will not be enough to form a dough yet. You will have a lumpy mixture, that’s what it is supposed to be.
- Keep stirring with the fork, breaking down the lumps as much as you can, until the mixture cools down to warm.
- At this point, preheat your oven to moderately hot 400° F/200° C/gs mark 6
- Add the grated cheese to the tapioca mixture and mix well, now using your hands.
- Add one egg at a time, mix with your hands until dough comes together. I suggest you lightly beat the egg with a fork and add little bits until the dough comes together into a soft but pliable dough. You only have to knead it a bit, not as much as you knead a yeasted bread. It’s OK if it is slightly sticky.
- Form balls with the dough and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or silicon mat or lightly greased with vegetable oil. If necessary, you can oil your hands to make shaping easier. The size of the balls may vary from small bite-sized balls to the size of ping pong balls. They will puff up quite a bit after baking. I personally prefer the smaller ones.
- Bake for about 25 minutes or until they just start to brown on the bottom. You may have golden spots of cheese on the crust. Don’t over-bake as they will get hard and bitter.
- Prep Time: 30 mins
- Cook Time: 25 mins
- Category: Appetizer
- Cuisine: Brazilian
