Whereas it’s arduous to not love the contemporary slices of beef and strong salad bar at a churrasco or Brazilian barbecue restaurant, the actual star of the present is the pão de queijo. These tacky Brazilian breads, that are sometimes served as an appetizer, arrive piping scorching with a crisp exterior and chewy, mochi-like inside. I can (and have) simply put away not less than 5 of them earlier than consuming anything. In any respect-you-can-eat spots like Fogo de Chão, this might not be essentially the most cost-effective strategy, however if you happen to’ve additionally tried these breads, then you understand how arduous it’s to cease your self from only one extra chunk.
So once I noticed that Bob’s Pink Mill has a recipe for pão de queijo on the again of its tapioca flour bag, I knew I wanted to aim to carry these tacky breads to my very own kitchen.
The recipe is very simple and depends totally on pantry staples; the one factor you’ll have to purchase is the bag of tapioca flour itself. In any other case, all you want are shredded cheese, salt, a single egg, milk, and olive oil, all of which I already had in my very own pantry.
The directions inform you to throw all the things right into a blender and let it rip earlier than pouring out the batter into greased muffin tins. Since I don’t have a blender I whisked all the things collectively in a mixing bowl. This takes barely longer, and requires a little bit of elbow grease to totally incorporate the tapioca flour with the liquid elements, however I’d say it was not more than two minutes of stirring. The beauty of working with tapioca flour is that it’s gluten-free, so there’s no want to fret about overmixing right here.
The batter regarded questionably watery by the point all the things got here collectively, however I trusted the method, and used a cookie scoop to portion the batter into every muffin tin. (In the event you combine it in a blender, you possibly can simply pour it.) Because the batter was fairly moist, it was a little bit of a balancing act, however I managed to fill every tin save forone. The recipe states you’ll get 12 rolls, however I wound up with 11.
As soon as the tins are stuffed, the buns want a mere 20 minutes in a 400-degree oven, so the recipe took me solely roughly half-hour from begin to end. I cleaned up the kitchen and washed all of the dishes whereas the rolls baked; by the point I used to be carried out, they had been, too.
The pão de queijos got here out scorching and crispy, and really aromatic with the scent of melted cheddar and olive oil. Regardless of a particularly moist batter, they overvalued into near-perfect spheres in between the scale of a golf ball and baseball. Steam escaped as I pulled them aside, revealing a stretchy inside full of pockets of cheese. Inside 10 minutes of taking them out of the oven, I had eaten 4.
I don’t suppose this recipe is ideal, but it surely’s shut, and as a base for pão de queijo, it’s foolproof. To enhance the recipe subsequent time, I’d enhance the salt from a half to a full teaspoon, because the bread tasted just a little undersalted to me.
I additionally suppose it will be enjoyable to change up the cheeses or do a mixture. There’s no means {that a} cheddar and parmesan mix can be unhealthy, or pepper jack paired with some chopped, pickled jalapeños. I’m curious if add-ins would have an effect on the bread’s rise, however even easy additions like garlic powder or smoked paprika may add dimension with out weighing down the batter.
Quibbles apart, I actually imagine anybody could make this recipe at residence with nice success, even those that are intimidated by baking. The pão de queijo would make spectacular appetizers at a cocktail party, an excellent addition to a potluck, or an ideal facet to chili or tomato soup. And if you happen to don’t eat them multi function sitting like I definitely will, in addition they freeze and reheat completely.
Extra photograph illustration credit: cheese bread photograph by Kat Thompson