Pão de queijo
Pão de queijo contains not a gram of wheat flour and no yeast — yet the rolls rise and come out hollow inside. That is done by tapioca starch scalded with boiling liquid: gelatinised starch can trap steam, which forces the dough open from within in the oven. The result is unmistakable — a crisp shell around a stretchy, chewy interior.
Your own work in that: 10 min.
- Scalding the starch 20 min
- Kneading 10 min
- Shaping 15 min
- Baking 50 min
Step by step
0 / 7 doneBoil the milk with oil and salt
Bring the milk to a boil with the oil and salt — it must genuinely boil, not merely steam. Liquid that is too cool will not gelatinise the starch, the dough stays crumbly and the rolls bake flat as discs.
Ingredients: 500 g tapioca starch · 250 ml milk · 120 ml oil · 1½ tsp salt
Pour the boiling liquid onto the starch
Pour it over the starch in one go and stir hard with a spoon for about 5 minutes, until all the starch is moistened. The mixture seizes into white lumps and looks ruined — that is correct. That is gelatinised starch, exactly what you want.
Ingredients: 500 g tapioca starch · 250 ml milk · 120 ml oil · 1½ tsp salt
White lumps are not a mistake — that is gelatinised starch.Cool to lukewarm
Leave the mixture for 10 minutes until lukewarm, and meanwhile heat the oven to 190°C. Egg added to a hot paste sets instantly and leaves pieces of scrambled egg in the dough — a common failure in this recipe.
Ingredients: 500 g tapioca starch · 250 ml milk · 120 ml oil · 1½ tsp salt
Work in the eggs and cheese
Add the eggs one at a time with both cheeses and knead by hand for 8 minutes. The dough is very sticky and unpleasant to handle — do not add more starch. That moisture is what turns to steam in the oven and lifts the rolls.
Ingredients: 2 pcs eggs · 200 g hard cheese · 80 g parmesan
Very sticky — do not add more starch.Roll balls with oiled hands
Oil your hands and roll about 40 balls of about 30 g, roughly 3.5 cm across. Set them on two lined trays with generous gaps — they double in size and will fuse if placed close together.
Ingredients: 2 pcs eggs · 200 g hard cheese · 80 g parmesan
30 g balls, well spaced.Bake 25 minutes at 190°C without opening
Bake one tray at a time for 25 minutes at 190°C, until golden and visibly puffed (keep the second tray somewhere cool meanwhile). Do not open the oven for the first 20 minutes — the structure rests entirely on steam, and a drop in temperature makes them collapse into dense lumps.
Ingredients: 2 pcs eggs · 200 g hard cheese · 80 g parmesan
Eat them hot
Serve straight from the oven. Pão de queijo peaks in the first fifteen minutes: crisp shell, stretchy centre. Once cool they turn rubbery and need reheating.
Ingredients: 2 pcs eggs · 200 g hard cheese · 80 g parmesan
Before you start
Sour or sweet starch
Many Brazilian recipes use polvilho azedo (sour, fermented starch) or a mix of sour and sweet. The sour one gives a bigger rise and a faintly fermented note. Ordinary tapioca starch works too — the rolls come out slightly smaller and milder.
Freeze the raw balls
Freeze shaped balls on a tray and bag them. Bake straight from frozen with 5 extra minutes. In Brazil frozen balls are also sold ready-made in shops — fresh pão de queijo any time, with no mixing.
Which cheese
The original uses a matured cheese from Minas Gerais (queijo minas meia-cura or canastra) — salty and assertive. A sharp cheddar or a mix of gouda and parmesan comes closest. The cheese must be salty and assertive — a mild one vanishes into the starch without trace.
