Pão de Queijo (Brazillian Cheese Bread)
MAKE THIS RIGHT NOW.
But really… now.
I had these for the first time last week at Fogo de Chão and couldn’t get them out of my head. I was like “… I don’t know what these little cheesy balls of bready Brazillian deliciousness are… but I want them forevertimes.” I literally hounded the manager to tell me what they were called and immediately scoured Google for a recipe while I was still at the table.
It’s serious…
Seriously EASY.
The only thing is, you can’t use regular all-purpose flour for this. You MUST use tapicoa flour. It’s essential for the texture of the bread. You can find it at Whole Foods, sometimes in the “organic” section of your regular grocery store, or online at Amazon
. You can also substitute the olive oil in this recipe for melted butter.

The only “exotic” item in this recipe is tapioca flour, and it is essential! Along with olive oil, milk, sea salt, cheese and eggs.

You can use a blender, food processor or good ol’ fashioned elbow grease for this. I used a stick blender. Whatever method you choose, combine all the ingredients and blend until well combined.

Scrape down the sides as necessary. It’s a pretty thin batter.

Fill a mini muffin tin almost to the top with the batter. FYI, the batter will keep in the fridge for about a week, so if you don’t use it all right away just store in an airtight container. If I had to choose a batter to have on hand all the time, this would be it.

Bake @ 400 degrees for about 15 minutes, or until lightly browned. If you like burnt cheese like I do, it’s tempting to leave them in until they’re super duper brown and burnty cheese lookin’, but don’t. That’s not what these are about. They ain’t ’bout that life!

These are all about texture. Crispy on the outside…

…gooey cheesy deliciousness on the inside. The texture is reminiscent of Japanese mochi.

I ate all of these. Judge me, I don’t care, but I guarantee my tummy is happier than your tummy right NAH.
Pão de Queijo (Brazillian Cheese Bread)
makes ~24 mini muffin size rolls
Ingredients
1 egg, room temperature
1/3 cup olive oil or butter (melted)
2/3 cup milk
1 1/2 cups tapioca flour
1/2 cup grated cheese (a *generous 1/2 cup. I used Parmesan. Mexican queso fresco also works well)
sea salt to taste (start with 1/4 tsp)
Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Combine all ingredients in a blending mechanism of your choice (blender, food processor, hand beaters, stick blender). Blend to combine, scraping down sides as needed.
Grease a mini muffin tin with butter. Fill mini muffin tin almost to the top with batter. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until puffy and just lightly browned. Remove from oven and let cool on a rack for a few minutes.
But that won’t happen… you’re going to eat them all straight out the oven. And that’s okay.
Notes
You must use tapioca flour for this. Don’t substitute.
Use any kind of grated cheese you like. Feel free to also add in herbs and spices. I’m really excited to experiment with this recipe.
If you didn’t think ahead enough to let your egg sit out to room temperature, just put it in a bowl of warm water for a few minutes.
Leftover batter can be stored in the fridge for up to a week.

I mean, COME ON.
Omg amazing ! I didnt know these were so easy to make !!!!! Hell better than buying that package weird stuff , thanks ! Will be trying this sometime soon and stuffing my face
Yes, NaNYC!! There are more complicated recipes out there where you basically are making a French pate-a-choux recipe, but I like this “throw it all in a blender and bake that shit” method better, especially since the results are the same!
ok – that salt to taste thing… um… where to start?!?! a pinch? a dash? a 1/4 tsp? i know parm is salty, so what gives after that?
and do you think I wouldd put a RL spin on these and throw in a dash of garlic and parsley? just asking… for a friend.
Nzinga! I’d start with 1/4 tsp, but you can’t really taste batter to make sure it’s right so I’d say if you like things on the salty side, up that to 1/2 tsp. Let me edit this recipe. Thanks. LOL
Also, YES to garlic powder / parsley / any dried or fresh herb you love. I’d make the first batch regular, see how you like ’em, then season up the second batch real good. YAY!!
you have the official honor of having the first recipe that i’ve gone home and tried the same day i saw it on a blog! 🙂
Omg Nzinga!!! Did you love them?!
i did like them! batch 2 had parsley… next tweak will be subbing melted butter for some of the oil (hunny didn’t like the oil as much) and also adding garlic. 😀 have a few with me today for lunch to pair with my veggie beef soup.
Let me know how they come out with the butter!
These were awesome. We made them tonight and it was so easy. Yay!
So easy you could even do it. But I bet you still didn’t lol
Just finished making these!! OMG I’m in love being a Brazilian so far from home these are on point just like my grandmother’s!! Thank you
awesome!!! so happy that you like them Isabel!!
Just made this! Wonderful!