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Cheese (Bread) Please! 

Sep 23, 2020

Apologies for all the cringey cheese puns on the way…

Inspired by the Brazilian cheese bread, pão de queijo, this naturally gluten-free tapioca cheese bread is not what you might first think of when you hear “bread”, but its airiness, chewiness, and exterior crunchiness will be sure to win over even the most passionate bread purists. I want to preface this by saying this cheese bread is by no means authentic or traditional, but it still contains the two basic ingredients of cheese and tapioca flour.

Brazilian Cheese Bread History: According to Eater, the first instance of pão de queijo was likely produced with the tapioca starch 17th-century slave communities collected “during the processing of cassava plants to supplement their meager daily rations”, but cheese wasn’t incorporated until the beginning of the 20th century.

This recipe is as simple as it gets for bread. As long as you have tapioca flour, the other ingredients are very likely already in your pantry/fridge. I adapted this recipe from Allrecipes.com, whose second step requires a saucepan to boil the liquid ingredients together, but a microwave to melt the butter did the trick for me. After that, it’s just a progression of dumping ingredients into a bowl and pouring the batter into a muffin tin.

I recommend using a Pyrex liquid measuring cup to do all your mixing in, as it makes pouring into a muffin tin even easier, but a regular mixing bowl and spoon will do the job as well. The recipe I adapted mine from implies that the mixture should be solid enough to drop small balls of it onto a sheet pan, but mine comes out as a thicker-than-cake batter. Regardless, I’ve never had a time where I didn’t absolutely devour these bread bites, so I’m doing something right!

Just a quick 18 minutes in the oven later, and you’ll find a toasted cheese aroma circulating through your kitchen. The golden-brown tops will let you know that they’re ready to go - the inside may be slightly underbaked, but there should be no liquid left whatsoever. This cheese bread is incredibly addictive - I make them to “share” with my dad, but once I start, I can’t hold myself back from eating more, which my grandma gets very upset about when I need to eat dinner in the next 20 minutes.

They’ve been perfectly shaped by the muffin mold the past two times I’ve made these, but even if they come out with a hole on the bottom, I promise they’re still DELICIOUS! I used too much butter the first couple times, which is partly why the ones below are more golden (no complaints there). You can see the difference in the photos below. Plus, you can use the hole as a vehicle for any condiments you might want to add.

Now let’s get on with the recipe and cheese the day!

Tapioca Cheese Bread

Yields 12 breads in a mini muffin tin

Ingredients

• 1 cup tapioca flour
• 2 tablespoons warm melted butter
• ⅓ cup milk or soy milk
• ⅓ cup grated Parmesan or gouda cheese (more or less, based on your preferred cheesiness)
• 1 beaten egg
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ⅛ teaspoon of granulated garlic (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 375°F, or 190°C.
2. Combine milk, warm melted butter, beaten egg, and salt.
   • Be sure to thoroughly mix, as you do not want the egg to cook at all.
3. Stir in the tapioca flour in two parts and mix until smooth.
   • Luckily, you don’t have to worry about overmixing as you would with regular bread, since there’s no gluten in this recipe!
   • Combining tapioca flour and liquids can create a slimy texture, so you may struggle to mix at first.
4. Add the cheese of your choice and stir well.
   • I’ve only tried Parmesan and gouda, but any lower-moisture cheeses would definitely work.
5. Fill each mold basically full, but not to the point where any batter spreads out of the individual cup.
6. Bake until the tops are lightly golden brown for 15-20 minutes. Aren’t they cheesy on the eyes?
   • Because of the butter and oils from the cheese, the breads should come right out of a non-stick muffin tray.
7. Serve with honey, jam, or marinara sauce.

See you soon,

Carissa 😊

If you have any questions, comments, or recommendations, please message @CarissaEats on Instagram or email carissaeats@yahoo.com!