Pão de Queijo or otherwise known as Cheesy Balls of Brazilian Heaven

Once upon a time when I was much, much younger (and skinnier), I travelled to the beautiful land of Brazil. My twenty something self arrived wide-eyed in Rio for an event, only to fall hopelessly in love with its beauty, people, crazy Joie de Vivre and of course, Beedub being Beedub, the food.

 

For its versatility, gooey decadence, heavenly smell and hangover busting properties, there was one particular food that captured my heart and soul. Each and every time I return to Brazil, I make it a personal ritual to feast on it daily at breakfast. 

 

Pão de Queijo as actually made by Beedub

Big praise indeed, but as far as I am concerned, these cheesy little balls of happiness deserve it all. I mentioned versatility and Pão de Queijo earn the accolade by starting their daily appearance at breakfast and literally popping up throughout the day at every meal as a starter, accompaniment or meal in themselves. Kingsmill sliced white loaf be damned I say - there is a lot to be learned from Brazilians about bread.

 

For me PdQ's are at their finest lovely and warm and squishy straight from the oven, enjoyed at breakfast accompanied by a delicious coffee or, if it's summer, a thirst quenching watermelon juice.

 

It's taken the better part of 14 years for me a). to pluck up the courage to attempt to make them and b).be at home long enough to risk trashing my kitchen in the attempt. As it happens, Life has kindly delivered me some time at home and inspiration all in one go and so a few days ago to ye olde faithful Google I went in search of a recipe.

 

After wading through two recipes, I discovered my first challenge. Pão de Queijo require tapioca flour. No clue what that is? You're not alone. Some more digging online revealed that it is the product of the cassava root (wahay), there is no substitute (boo) and it is not easy to find (double boo), but if you can find a Brazilian Supermarket or online food import store it's not impossible (yay). I went the online food store route so if you are in the UK I can recommend a goodie Melbury and Appleton (click orange text to go to website)

 

I also managed to bag Mr Beedub some coveted Franks Hot Wings Sauce and some lush chorizo in the same order which scored me major brownie points (and went some way to compensating for the trashed kitchen, but more on that later.

 

picture from www.thekitchn.com

Having patiently waiting for my tapioca flour to arrive, today was the day. I am not going to lie, my baking confidence was not high after a rather disastrous recent attempt at banana bread, but the thought of cheesy loveliness was enough to make me take the plunge. I don't know about you, but I find choosing recipes online quite intimidating. There are so many  Pão de Queijo recipes out there and I am sure most of them are good so how on earth do you choose? In the end my extremely scientific selection process was a follows:

Whose recipe had the picture that looked the most like I remembered them?

Which recipe didn't require a muffin tin as naturally I don't own one?

 

So recipe selected off I went. I am not going to rehash the recipe here as I would rather send you straight to the source, but I will give you a few tips that might help, if like me you are a virgin baker.

 

theKitchn ~ How to make Pao de Queijo (click orange text for recipe)

 

Beedub Feedback:

 

There are really helpful pictures with the recipe. Which I didn't see until now. Using them might, possibly, have been the practical thing to do.

 

I find measurements in cups quite scary as I have mahoosive cups which I don't think are correct. If you want to reduce your stress, buy yourself one of those official baking cup measuring thingies. Or the best I can suggest is to pick a reasonably sized cup and measure everything with same cup. If you happen to own Starbucks Mugs, don't, under any circumstances, use them. It can only end in pain. Not that I would know from personal experience...

 

In the first assembly step you wait for the milk and oil to come gently to the boil. Don't be afraid if the milk and oil look completely separate. Hang in there. Eventually they do froth together and if you remove at that point (with the big bubbles) it all seems to work out. Phew.

 

In Step 2 adding the flour to the boiled liquid, be prepared for mad kitchen mess and achy arms and panic that you have inadvertently created a substitute for wall paper paste. Again hang in there. It looks awful but it does work. Also the messy kitchen might just have been my incompetence.

 

consistency after cheese and eggs picture from www.thekitchn.com

Step 3 when you add the egg and then the cheese, if like me you do it by hand, it may look quite lumpy and extremely sticky. Persevere as long as you can before you get disco elbow and they will be delicious (albeit not quite as smooth and peachy looking as the picture).

 

Cooking time - I didn't cook them quite as long as the recipe suggested but I judged it by cutting one open. Also it is possible since my oven dial has no numbers my oven may have been a bit hotter than they recommended.

 

One final tip as I ran out of parmesan I substituted 30% with plain old English Cheddar and I actually think that improved the flavour and texture.

 

I am ridiculously proud to tell you that mine tasted delicious. Even Mr Beedub said so. My friends this is proof enough that this is a most excellent recipe.

 

So having just climbed my personal baking Everest, I just have one remaining question: With deliciousness like this at their finger tips, how on earth do Brazilian women have asses that teeny and perky??