Name: Pão de Queijo com Café
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 55 min
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: Brazil
Ingredients: 250 ml whole milk; 120 ml neutral oil, plus a little extra for your hands; 1 tsp salt; 250 g sour cassava starch (polvilho azedo), see tips for substitutions; 2 eggs, large, at room temperature; 150 g aged Minas cheese or Parmesan, finely grated; 40 g freshly ground coffee, medium grind, for the coffee; 500 ml hot water, just off the boil, for the coffee

Pão de queijo is the cheese roll of Minas Gerais, eaten all over Brazil for breakfast and at afternoon coffee. It is made with cassava starch (polvilho), not wheat flour, so the rolls have a thin crust and a chewy, stretchy inside with hollow pockets, and they are naturally gluten-free. They are eaten warm, by hand, with a small cup of strong black coffee.

The dough starts with a scald: you boil the milk, oil and salt and pour it over the starch, which cooks it and gives the rolls their chew. Cool the dough before the eggs go in, or they will scramble. The dough is very sticky, so oiled hands are the secret to rolling it into neat balls.

Pão de Queijo com Café is one of the best breakfasts from around the world.

method

Heat the oven to 200°C (400°F) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Put the starch in a large heatproof bowl.

Combine the milk, oil and salt in a saucepan and bring to a full boil. Pour it immediately over the starch and stir with a wooden spoon until all the starch is moistened and the mixture looks shaggy and slightly glossy. Let it cool for 10 minutes.

Beat in the eggs one at a time, then knead the dough in the bowl with your hands for 2 to 3 minutes until it comes together. It should be soft and sticky. Work in the grated cheese until evenly mixed.

Oil your hands lightly and roll the dough into balls about 4 cm (1.5 in) wide, roughly 40 g each, making about 20. Place them 3 cm (1 in) apart on the baking sheet.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until puffed, golden and lightly speckled where the cheese has browned. The rolls will crack a little on top, which is normal. Do not open the oven in the first 15 minutes or they may collapse.

While they bake, make the coffee: put the ground coffee in a paper filter set over a pot or cup, pour the hot water in slow circles, and let it drip through. Serve the rolls warm in a basket with the coffee.

chef's tips

Polvilho azedo (sour starch) gives the classic tang and puff. Polvilho doce (sweet starch, sold as tapioca starch) works too; use half and half if you cannot find the sour one.
The raw dough balls freeze very well. Freeze them on a tray, bag them, and bake from frozen for 30 to 35 minutes.
If the dough is too runny to roll, add 1 to 2 tablespoons more starch. If it is too stiff, work in a spoonful of milk.
Eat them the same day. They are at their best warm, and they go leathery once cold, though 5 minutes in a hot oven revives them.