Recipe

South America → 🇧🇷 Brazil → Minas Gerais
Pão de Queijo (Brazilian Cheese Puffs)
Brazilian (Mineiro) · easy · serves 6
prep 15 min · cook 25 min
~319 cal · 20g protein · 4g carbs · 25g fat (estimated, per serving)
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Basket of golden cheese puffs, one torn open showing chewy crumb
🇧🇷 Minas Gerais
Pão de queijo comes from the farm kitchens of Minas Gerais, where tapioca starch stood in for scarce wheat and the local cheese did the rest. Mineiros eat them with afternoon coffee, and the smell of a batch baking is the region’s calling card.
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Ingredients
Serves 6 —
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2 cups sour tapioca starch (polvilho azedo, or plain tapioca starch)
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3/4 cup whole milk
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1/3 cup neutral oil
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2 eggs
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1.5 cups Minas cheese or parmesan + mozzarella, grated
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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
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Minas Gerais. Mountain farm kitchens famous for cheese and hospitality.
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Brazil. A continent-sized country with an Afro-Brazilian coastal soul.
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South America. Andes, Amazon, and Atlantic all on one plate.
The story behind this dish is up top — worth a read while the pot works.
👩‍🍳
Richard Moore & Kelsey Tucker
Recipes cooked, tested, and researched by the creators of Spin the Globe. How we build our recipes →
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