Recipe
🍳 BREAKFAST
Pão de Queijo (Brazilian Cheese Puffs)
Chewy-crisp little cheese breads made from tapioca starch, naturally gluten-free and dangerously poppable.
Brazilian (Mineiro) · easy · serves 6
prep 15 min · cook 25 min
~319 cal · 20g protein · 4g carbs · 25g fat · 0g fiber · 2g sugars · 9g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Pao de queijo, the little cheese bread of Minas Gerais, has become one of Brazil's best-loved snacks and a fixture of bakeries, breakfast tables, and airports across the country. Its origins lie in colonial Minas, where was plentiful long before wheat.
It is made from sour and sweet tapioca starch (from ) blended with eggs, oil, milk, and grated cheese, which means it is naturally gluten-free. Baked, it puffs into small rolls that are crisp and chewy outside and hollow and stretchy within, thanks to the unique nature of tapioca.
Eaten warm, ideally straight from the oven, they are dangerously moreish and impossible to stop at one. Pao de queijo is comfort and nostalgia for Brazilians, the smell of it baking a shortcut straight to home.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and gluten-, nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 6
2 cups sour tapioca starch (polvilho azedo, or plain tapioca starch)
3/4 cup whole milk
1/3 cup
2 eggs
1.5 cups Minas cheese or parmesan and mozzarella, grated
1 tsp salt
Instructions
1
Heat the milk and oil to a bare simmer and pour over the tapioca starch; mix, it will look shaggy and strange. Cool 10 minutes.
2
Beat in the eggs (or aquafaba), then the cheese and salt, kneading into a sticky, stretchy dough.
3
With oiled hands, roll golf-ball rounds onto a lined tray.
4
Bake at 375°F for 22-25 minutes until puffed and golden but still pale-chewy inside.
5
Eat warm, when the crust crackles and the middle stretches. They also freeze raw beautifully.
Minas Gerais farm kitchens.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Minas Gerais. The cheese itself is heritage-listed: the traditional ways of making artisanal Minas cheese carry a UNESCO inscription, and what makes it work is pingo, a natural starter of whey saved from the previous day carrying bacteria particular to each region. Canastra, Serro and Araxa each produce a distinguishable cheese from the same method.
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Brazil. Brazil is a continent-sized country with an Afro-Brazilian coastal soul, from Bahia's palm-oil and coconut moquecas to the national feijoada bean stew. Cassava, black beans, tropical fruit, and churrasco barbecue anchor a joyful, diverse table.
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South America. Migration reworked the plate within living memory. Japanese arrivals in Peru and Brazil produced Nikkei cooking, Italians made pasta and pizza entirely ordinary in Argentina, Uruguay and Sao Paulo, and West African cooking carried into Bahia by the slave trade gave Brazil dende palm oil, okra and a whole ritual repertoire.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Brazil
Moqueca Baiana (Bahian Fish Stew)Fish simmered in coconut milk, dendê palm oil, peppers, and lime in a clay pot, the taste of the Bahian coast.
FeijoadaBrazil’s black-bean and smoked-meat feast, simmered for hours and served with rice, greens, orange, and farofa.
BrigadeiroFudgy chocolate truffles of condensed milk cooked with cocoa and butter, rolled in sprinkles. No Brazilian party exists without them.
Browse all Brazil recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Oven.
Storing it: Keeps 3 to 4 days refrigerated and reheats covered in the oven. Most bakes can be assembled a day ahead and baked when needed.
Make it a Brazil meal
CaipirinhaDrink
BrigadeiroDessert
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Frequently asked questions
What is Pão de Queijo (Brazilian Cheese Puffs)?
Chewy-crisp little cheese breads made from tapioca starch, naturally gluten-free and dangerously poppable.
Where does Pão de Queijo (Brazilian Cheese Puffs) come from?
Pão de Queijo (Brazilian Cheese Puffs) is a Brazilian (Mineiro) dish from Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Can Pão de Queijo (Brazilian Cheese Puffs) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Pão de Queijo (Brazilian Cheese Puffs) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Pão de Queijo (Brazilian Cheese Puffs) safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Pão de Queijo (Brazilian Cheese Puffs) take to make?
About 40 minutes total (15 minutes prep, 25 minutes cooking), serving 6.
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