“Why do I have so much Parmesan cheese.”
I’m a serial Forgetter of What I Already Have, and Buyer of Things I Already Own when it comes to food items. I once ended up with multiple bottles of coriander seeds because I always forgot I already had it in my pantry, and then there was also the “Three Jars of Peanut Butter” incident. And now I found myself with six hunks of Parmesan cheese.
I love cheese, but six pieces of Parmesan is still a bit… excessive. I knew I had to cull my collection, especially before any of them tragically sprouted fuzzy mold. And after a quick rummage through my pantry rack yielded a bag of tapioca flour, I knew a nice batch of pao de queijo was in order.
Oops.
Pao de queijo is a snack-sized Brazilian cheese bread, which I first had at my (Brazilian) high-school boyfriend’s home. His mom bought them frozen and would pop a few into the oven several times a day so that there was always a supply of them on the kitchen island for snacking. Now fast forward several (okay, many) years later, and I found myself making them in a cooking class, and learning that these are insanely easy to whip up. And also a great way to use up surplus cheese, should you ever find yourself in the luxury of that situation.
These are bite-sized and chewy (thanks to the use of tapioca flour), and though it does use a good two cups of cheese, is actually pretty mild on the cheese taste — though that may depend on what kind of cheese you use. I’ve had the most success using hard cheeses like Parmesan, and I think Parm is the usual cheese of choice for these unless you can get your mitts on more traditionally Brazilian cheeses, though I also like to mix in a bit of Pecorino as well because I just like Pecorino, okay?
Everything comes together in a blender, making assembly and cleanup a breeze. More time for eating, I’d say.
Note: Bob’s Mills sells tapioca flour, but if you can’t find that at the grocery store, check in the international food aisle, or at an Asian or Latin market. It could also be sold under the name “cassava flour” — that’s the same thing.
Yield: 48 rolls
Time: 25 minutes
1 cup milk
3 eggs
1 tbs salt
2/3 cup olive oil
1 2/3 cup Parmesan, grated
1/3 cup Pecorino (or you can just use 2 cups Parmesan and no Pecorino), grated
3 cups tapioca flour
Combine the milk, eggs, salt, and olive oil in the blender. Blitz it until it’s completely uniform.
Add in the tapioca flour one cup at a time, blitzing until it’s completely uniform.
Add in the grated cheese, and either stir to combine or just run the blender again to get it all evenly mixed.
Pour into greased mini muffin tins. Be sure to not overfill — only fill each little hole halfway. Don’t worry, the pao de queijo will puff up quite a bit as it bakes. Bake for 20 minutes.
Transfer each puff onto a wire rack to cool, but these are best eaten while still warm.
These can be frozen and enjoyed later! After they’ve cooled, put them into a freezer bag and get as much air out as possible and stash in the freezer. To reheat, either microwave them on a paper towel for about 20 seconds (they won’t be crispy at all), or if you want that crispy-chewy texture, pop them in a 350* F oven for about 8-12 minutes. Keep an eye on them so you don’t end up burning them.
