PAO DE QUEIJO (Brazilian Cheese Bread)
Pao de Queijo is traditional bread made with the yucca and served in all parts of Brazil. Wherever you go, you going to found a cup of coffee and pao de queijo. Its origin is uncertain, but most historians agreed that it was first made in the XVIII century in the state of Minas Gerais when the Portuguese were still colonizing Brazil for sugar and coffee plantations. Brazil did not have their own crop of wheat; flour was not yet available. If any flour was found in the country it most likely came from Portugal.
Slave women who worked the plantation homes needed to provide the master with a similar bread that they ate in Portugal. The flour that often arrived in port from Portugal was in bad condition and inedible. The slave kitchen staff adapted recipes using manioc flour (which was abundant in Brasil in the time and so is now) and the ingredients that they have in most use, eggs, milk and cheese. Pao de queijo was created to mimic bread eaten by traders in Portugal. Today this wonderful tasting bread is widespread all over the country and really popular everywhere you travel in Brazil.
PAO DE QUEIJO
3 cups of tapioca flour
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup canola oil
3 cups shredded cheese (a combination in equal parts of feta, parmesan and mozzarella, or white cheddar, or only parmesan and feta to get more close to the real flavor of the brazilian curated cheese)
2 eggs
Set the oven at 405 F.
Put the tapioca flour in a bowl. bring the milk, salt and oil together to a boil, when it starts to boil add it in one time over the tapioca flour and mix well until all are course. Let rest for a minute or two, just to warm it up so the hands can be use to add the eggs without the risk to get burned. Add the eggs one by one, and make sure are really well kneaded before add the cheese, so do not will have strong smell of eggs in the final results. Add the cheese, make little balls and put in the pan previous covered with parchment paper.
Put in the oven (have to be in the hot oven) for more or less 15 minutes until the cheese start to smell and the bread are lightly brown.
These are delicious as a snack or as part of a meal! As an American, used to wheat-flour everything, had I known what these were made of before I tasted, I may have been hesitant to try. But, I saw a beautiful bread and cheese ball and popped one in my mouth without thinking. I was ever so surprised when I found out they were made from yucca or tapioca flour! Mariuska, you surprised me!! (And I loved it!)
Thank you Kristy for great comment I am glad you like it, they are really good.