The Fresh Loaf

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Brazilian cheese bread

June 20, 2019 - 10:48am
Janet Yang's picture
Janet Yang

Brazilian cheese bread

What kind of textures (inside and outside) should Pão de Queijo have?

Most recipes call for tapioca flour, apparently because that is what is easiest to find here. However, one website insists that instead of tapioca flour, two kinds of manioc flour should be used: Sweet (polvilho doce) and sour (polvilho azedo). The sweet flour gives the gooey texture, while the sour adds both flavor and crunch.

Have you tried using sour manioc flour?

Janet

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cfraenkel's picture
cfraenkel
Jun 20 2019 - 9:00pm

I have made this successfully just using Tapioca starch, so I don't know about the sweet and sour.  Now you have me wondering if it could be better! Usually the outside is firm, I wouldn't say crunchy, but not soft and the inside is gooey.

calneto's picture
calneto
Jun 20 2019 - 9:25pm

Hi, I am Brazilian and have made pão de queijo a couple of times. Not the easiest thing, though.

Be careful! There is such a thing as manioc flour. This is what is used to make farofa, a famous side-dish. It is not the same as polvilho. Polvilho is manioc starch. Similar to corn starch, just made out of the manioc root instead.

What you said is true about the two kinds of starch. Usually the recipe calls for a higher percentage of the sour one (polvilho azedo). 

Let me give you a good and tested recipe:

Ingredients:

  • 350 g polvilho azedo (sour manioc starch)
  • 90 g polvilho doce (sweet manioc starch)
  • 10 g salt
  • 220 g milk
  • 65 g cooking oil (we use soy, since it is the common kind here; corn will do)
  • 65 g egg
  • 250 g meia-cura cheese
  • 50 g parmegian cheese
  • Mix all the dry ingredients and then boil the milk with the oil mixed in. Pour this into the mixture and mix well. I add the egg lastly and finish mixing.

Form small balls and bake for about 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

I wouldn't know what to use instead of meia-cura cheese. This is a halfway aged 'frescal' cheese. The frescal cheese is very similar to Mexican 'queso fresco', but the meia cura is much harder in texture and has a stronger flavor, since it is cured.

What is sold as 'tapioca' here in Brazil is something else. It is a much coarser kind of flour. I would not use it for pão de queijo, since the bread will be full of clumps. Anyways, that is what I have to say. Probably did not help much. I guess the most important thing is: do not, ever, use 'farinha de mandioca' (manioc flour). It has nothing to to with either tapioca or polvilho. A bread using this will have nothing in common with pão de queijo. You can stirr fry it with butter to make farofa, though, which I highly recommend.

Here is a photo of some polvilho doce, which I happened to have (it is similar in texture to the sour one):