Brazilian Cheese Bread
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Enjoy warm-from-the-oven Brazilian cheese bread with a delicately crisp exterior and gooey, cheesy center—perfect for breakfast, a snack, or a side dish.
If you’ve ever been to a Brazilian steakhouse, or churrascaria, you’ve probably tried pão de queijo—those irresistible little cheese breads with a crispy exterior and gooey, chewy center. Their unique texture comes from tapioca flour, which is made from the cassava root and is naturally gluten-free.
This Brazilian cheese bread recipe is easy to make—the batter comes together in a blender in minutes and bakes up quickly in a mini muffin pan. While at steakhouses the rolls are served as a side dish to complement the meat-heavy meal, in everyday Brazilian life they’re more often enjoyed as a snack or breakfast item. They’re also delicious paired with soups and salads. Once you try the rolls warm from the oven, you won’t be able to stop at just one!
What You’ll Need To Make Brazilian Cheese Bread
- Eggs: Provide structure and richness to the dough, helping it puff up during baking and contributing to the bread’s fluffy interior.
- Vegetable Oil: Adds moisture and tenderness to the bread while creating a light, crisp exterior.
- Milk: Creates a smooth, cohesive batter, adding creaminess and subtle flavor to the bread.
- Tapioca Flour: Essential for the bread’s unique chewy texture and elasticity, allowing it to rise and maintain its shape. You can typically find tapioca starch in the baking aisle, gluten-free, or natural foods section of your supermarket. I use the Bob’s Red Mill brand.
- Pecorino Romano/Parmigiano Reggiano And Mozzarella/Cheddar Cheese: These cheeses bring a combination of salty, nutty flavors with a melty, gooey texture that makes the bread rich and savory.
- Baking Powder: Acts as a leavening agent, giving the bread a light, airy texture and helping it rise in the oven.
- Jump to the printable recipe for precise measurements
Step-By-Step Instructions
Preheat the oven to 400°F and set an oven rack in the middle position. Spray a mini muffin pan with non-stick cooking spray. To a blender, add the eggs, oil, and milk.
Blend for about 5 seconds to combine.
Add the tapioca flour, Parmesan cheese, mozzarella (or Cheddar) cheese, salt, and baking powder.
Blend for another 5 seconds to combine, then scrape down the sides of the jar and blend very briefly again. Avoid over-blending to prevent incorporating too much air, which can make the batter difficult to pour.
Pour the batter into the muffin wells, filling them about three-quarters full.
Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, until puffed and lightly golden. The cheese breads may fall slightly in the center, either in the oven or as they cool; that’s normal.
Remove the cheese breads from the muffin pan and serve warm.
Adapting Traditional Brazilian Cheese Bread for U.S. Ingredients
Traditional Brazilian cheese bread often uses a combination of two types of tapioca flour—polvilho doce (sweet tapioca flour) and polvilho azedo (sour tapioca flour)—to achieve the ideal balance of chewiness and puffiness. In the United States, we typically only have access to one type of tapioca flour, which is closer to polvilho doce. Unlike the traditional dough, which is thicker, rolled by hand, and baked free-form on a baking sheet, this recipe results in a liquid batter and is baked in a mini muffin tin. After experimenting with many iterations and methods, I found that this version delivers the best results with the ingredients available here.
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Brazilian Cheese Bread
Ingredients
- 2 large eggs
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- ½ cup milk
- 1 cup tapioca flour (also called tapioca starch; see note)
- ½ cup grated Pecorino Romano or Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
- ½ cup shredded Mozzarella (or Cheddar) cheese
- Heaping ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F (205°C) and set an oven rack in the middle position. Spray a mini muffin pan with non-stick cooking spray.
- In a blender, combine the eggs, oil, and milk. Blend for about 5 seconds to combine. Add the tapioca flour, Parmesan cheese, mozzarella (or Cheddar) cheese, salt, and baking powder. Blend for another 5 seconds to combine, then scrape down the sides of the jar and blend very briefly again. Avoid over-blending to prevent incorporating too much air, which can make the batter difficult to pour.
- Pour the batter into the muffin wells, filling them about three-quarters full.
- Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, until puffed and lightly golden. The cheese breads may fall slightly in the center, either in the oven or as they cool; that’s normal.
- Remove the cheese breads from the muffin pan and serve warm.
Notes
Nutrition Information
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
Gluten-Free Adaptable Note
To the best of my knowledge, all of the ingredients used in this recipe are gluten-free or widely available in gluten-free versions. There is hidden gluten in many foods; if you're following a gluten-free diet or cooking for someone with gluten allergies, always read the labels of your ingredients to verify that they are gluten-free.
Comments
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As soon as I saw this recipe in the newsletter I ran to the store to get tapioca flour. It was so easy to make. Made exactly as written. Used mozzarella. I just pulled it out of the oven and sampled one – sooo good! Thank you for the recipe, Jenn!
Jenn, I am just another Once Upon a Chef fan…. You are an honorary member of our family, i.e., “Is this Jenn’s recipe?”
Regarding the mini muffin pan, since I don’t have one, can I get away with a standard 12 muffin pan and adjust the bake time? A million thanks for your blog and cookbooks! 💕
Aww, I am honored! 💕 I do think it would work. Hard to say exactly how much to increase baking time, but I’d start checking for doneness around 20 min. I’d love to know how they turn out if you try them!
As an exchange student in Brazil in 1986 I was introduced to these delicious morsels. I remember my host mom bringing them home from the local bakery before their afternoon nap. The bag was warm and greasy. I ate one. Then another. And another. I will NEVER forget it. It was one of the best things I’ve ever had in my life.
OMG.. as a Brazilian fan of your recipes I have to say that this must be a good one and they look delicious, but gotta tell you that the original recipe doesn’t really take milk and you don’t even need the muffin pan to bake them cause we can naturally roll them (they are so NOT liquid! lol).
But well, adaptations must be done from country to country, right?! 😉 The taste in the end is what counts so I’ll try yours and compare to what we eat here in Brazil and let you know!
Hi Luana, Thank you for your sweet note! I have tried many versions similar to what you describe, but for me they always turned out too heavy and dense. I believe it is due to differences in the tapioca flour available in the States (I have seen many authentic Brazilian recipes that use two different types of tapioca flour; we only have one here). I have added a paragraph above to explain further. Hope that clarifies!
Interesting. I have never used a muffin pan to make these. I form them in my hands.
I don’t have a mini muffin pan, can these be baked in a traditional muffin pan?
They look so interesting, looking forward to trying them.
Hi Jeannie, A standard muffin tin should work. You’ll need increase the baking time but I’m not sure by how much; I’d start checking for doneness around 20 min. Please LMK how they turn out if you try them!