Food Fun Friday: Pão de queijo Recipe -Brazilian Cheese Bread

In the days before we had kids, my husband and I did a lot of travel. We were fortunate enough to visit Brazil, and that country has always held a special place in our hearts. Brazil has the most amazing people and culture. Part of that culture is the food. We ate a lot of street food while we were there, and one of our favorite treats was a cheesy dough ball called pão de queijo. Recently, I came across a blog Kid World Citizen where they shared a pão de queijo recipe. I was so excited as we have not had this since we were in Brazil. I could not wait to share this treat with my husband and kids. Read on for the recipe.

You will need:

• 24 oz of tapioca flour
• 16 oz of shredded mozzarella
• 8 oz of Parmesan cheese
• 1 cup of milk
• 1/2 cup of oil
• 4 or 5 eggs
• Few pinches of salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together the oil and milk and heat until boiling.

Add the boiling milk and oil to a bowl of the tapioca flour.

Knead the mixture and add all of the other ingredients and knead again until a dough forms. This dough was super sticky on my fingers and my kids had fun watching me trying to get it off.

For my pão de queijo, I used 4 eggs and only 10 oz of the shredded mozzarella. The recipe calls for 16 oz, but that is a ton of cheese and partly out of cheapness I only used 10. I don't think it affected the taste in any way.

Once the dough was prepared it was time for the kids to help. I showed them how they could roll ping pong sized balls and place them on a baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray. Rolling the pão de queijo reminded them of playing with play dough, so they were all too happy to roll balls for me. 

We made a full cookie pan of  pão de queijo, but we had lots of dough left over so we kept on rolling and froze the remainder of the balls. I am told they keep fine in the freezer and you can just pop them in the oven when you want some more. And you WILL want some more!

Pop in the oven for 25 minutes. 

The pao de queijo balls will turn a pretty golden color.

Break one open and enjoy the Brazilian cheese bread goodness. The tapioca flour gives the pao de queijo a nice chewy texture. 

It was just as good as we remembered and now we have a whole new generation of pao fans in our house. 

This is a simple pao de queijo recipe that will bring home the flavors of Brazil! What are some of your favorite foods from places you have traveled? Leave a comment below and let me know.

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