Brazilian Cheese Bread - Sandwich Type

(Gluten Free, Sugar Free, Yeast Free) 

I love Brazilian Cheese Bread, Pão de Queijo, as a basic recipe it is tapioca flour, cheese, butter, milk, eggs.  

When I first made them, it was in a blender and they were light more like 'popovers' very easy - but the only thing you could do with them was eat them as a snack. Similar to this recipe from Simply Recipes.

Then I discovered one of my favorite 'restaurants' ever - Mama's Cheese Bread in Brookfield, Connecticut, USA.  They took Brazilian Cheese Balls to a whole different level for me - making them into sandwiches!  I literally had 5 or 6 a week last summer when I was in the USA.  The kids had some of the balls or a sandwich every morning too.  We bought their dough and took it home to bake when guest same over, we were addicted.  Oh, how I miss them now we are back in Hong Kong.  I swear he could make a global chain of his secret recipe.

Now, what I am about to share, is nowhere nearly as good as Mama's Cheese Bread.  But I did want to play around with making a thicker dough, that could be baked into a slightly heavier 'roll' type of bread for mini sandwiches.

As with my other recipes, this is very flexible, so play around until you get a texture you like.

Ingredients

• 3-3 1/2 Cups** of tapioca flour/starch
  
• 1 Tablespoon of baking powder
  
• 1 Cup grated parmesan cheese
  
• 1 Cup yogurt cheese/farmers cheese or grated mozzarella cheese
  
• 1/3 Cup butter or olive oil (room temperature)
  
• 2 Eggs (room temperature)
  
• 1 Cup of milk (dairy or non dairy)

(**If you want them a bit lighter use less flour)
They are very bland, so if you want to spice it up you can with some black pepper, paprika or other spices - maybe a curry variety? 

Directions

• Preheat oven to 190C (375F)
  
• Prepare two baking trays with parchment/baking paper

Put all the ingredients in your food processor with the plastic S blade in the following order:

• Tapioca flour
  
• Baking powder
  
• Mix
  
• Add the cheeses
  
• Mix
  
• Add the butter and eggs
  
• Mix
  
• Add the milk - add the milk slowly as you might not use it all, you want to stop when you can *just* roll the dough into little balls and they keep their shape
  

Roll balls and put on your two baking trays.  I tend to do one tray of smaller balls, and one of larger ones which I slightly flatten to use for sandwiches (see photo below).

Bake around 20-25 minutes, until they puff up and start to turn a slight golden color.

Best eaten warm from the oven, or within 12-24 hours.

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