Pao de queijo
Photo: Murilo manzini · CC BY-SA 4.0

History

Pao de queijo began in 18th-century Minas Gerais, where cassava starch stood in for wheat flour that colonial farming could not reliably grow, and later took on cheese and eggs once dairy farming and Afro-Brazilian cooks combined the two staples after slavery ended. Made from polvilho, a cassava starch, rather than wheat flour, it is naturally free of gluten, a fact Sao Paulo bakeries now use to sell it beyond its Minas origins. It is not native to Sao Paulo and this guide makes no such claim, but the city adopted it wholesale: on breakfast counters and at A Baianeira, whose Minas-born chef opens the meal with a pao de queijo starter.

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Common allergens: Dairy, Eggs

Make it at home

Yield Makes about 20 small rollsHands-on 20 minTotal 50 minDifficulty Easy

Ingredients

  • 250ml whole milk
  • 100ml oil
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 500g polvilho doce (sweet cassava starch)
  • 2 eggs
  • 250g Minas cheese or a mix of parmesan and mozzarella, grated

Method

  1. Bring the milk, oil and salt to a boil in a saucepan.
  2. Pour the hot liquid over the polvilho in a large bowl and mix with a spoon until it forms a rough, sticky mass. Let cool 10 minutes.
  3. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each, then knead in the grated cheese until the dough is smooth and slightly elastic.
  4. With oiled hands, roll the dough into golf-ball sized pieces and place on a lined tray, spaced apart.
  5. Bake at 180C for 25 to 30 minutes, until puffed and lightly golden, with a hollow centre.
  6. Serve warm; they deflate slightly and firm up as they cool.

Tip from the editors. The raw dough is sticky by nature; oiling your hands rather than adding flour keeps the texture right.

Where to eat pao de queijo

Pao de queijo in São Paulo

A Baianeira ★ 4.5

$$ BrazilianBela Vista

A Baianeira serves chef Manuelle Ferraz's Minas and Bahia borderland cooking two floors below MASP on Avenida Paulista, a sister to the Barra Funda room.

OrderThe pao de queijo starter and the baiao de dois with braised meat.

TipStart with the pao de queijo, a recipe the chef has cooked since she started out; daily specials run alongside the baiao de dois.

Directions

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