flipPão de queijo
Pão de queijo
Why this dish? The cheese bread is the universal snack of Minas Gerais: you find it on every street corner, at every coffee table, in every home. For Dilma, as for any Mineiro, it is the smell of morning and the snack you slip into your pocket for the road.
Small golden, elastic balls made from cassava starch and aged Minas cheese, crispy outside, soft and stretchy inside. Gluten-free, irresistible when warm.
Pão de queijo is the smell of my childhood mornings. You make it with polvilho, that cassava starch, and especially real queijo Minas curado, well-aged, otherwise it has no taste. The secret is in the scalding: you pour boiling milk and oil over the starch, it crackles, it 'scalds,' and that's what gives it that softness that melts in the mouth. You eat them warm, straight from the oven, with a cafezinho. Look, in Minas, you can't imagine receiving someone without offering them this.
- •Cassava starch (polvilho azedo and doce) — two measures (gluten-free base)
- •Aged Minas cheese — a good portion grated (signature cheese)
- •Milk and lard (or oil) — equal parts (scalded binding)
- •Eggs — a few (binder)
Pão de queijo
Small golden, elastic balls made from cassava starch and aged Minas cheese, crispy outside, soft and stretchy inside. Gluten-free, irresistible when warm.
Why this dish? The cheese bread is the universal snack of Minas Gerais: you find it on every street corner, at every coffee table, in every home. For Dilma, as for any Mineiro, it is the smell of morning and the snack you slip into your pocket for the road.
Pão de queijo is the smell of my childhood mornings. You make it with polvilho, that cassava starch, and especially real queijo Minas curado, well-aged, otherwise it has no taste. The secret is in the scalding: you pour boiling milk and oil over the starch, it crackles, it 'scalds,' and that's what gives it that softness that melts in the mouth. You eat them warm, straight from the oven, with a cafezinho. Look, in Minas, you can't imagine receiving someone without offering them this.
Ingredients (period version)
- Cassava starch (polvilho azedo and doce) — two measures (gluten-free base)
- Aged Minas cheese — a good portion grated (signature cheese)
- Milk and lard (or oil) — equal parts (scalded binding)
- Eggs — a few (binder)
Ingredients
- Cassava starch (polvilho azedo, or tapioca starch if unavailable) — 500 g (gluten-free base)
- Aged Minas cheese (or Parmesan + a fresh cheese) — 250 g grated (signature cheese)
- Milk — 250 ml (scalding liquid)
- Neutral oil — 120 ml (scalding liquid)
- Eggs — 2 (binder)
- Salt — 1 teaspoon (seasoning)
Method
- Bring the milk, oil and salt to a boil.
- Pour this boiling mixture over the cassava starch and mix: the dough will 'crackle' and clump, that's normal (scalding).
- Let cool slightly, then incorporate the eggs one by one, then the grated cheese, until a smooth, sticky dough forms.
- Oil your hands and shape small balls the size of a walnut.
- Bake at 180°C for 20 to 25 minutes: they should puff up and turn golden.
- Enjoy warm, ideally with coffee.
How it was made : Pão de queijo was born in the fazendas of Minas in the 18th century: lacking wheat, they used indigenous cassava starch and cheese produced on site. Long a rustic food from slave and farmer kitchens, it became the gastronomic emblem of the entire state.
The contemporary twist : Today they are served filled with runny goiabada or requeijão for a sweet or creamy surprise center.
Dilma Rousseff · Charactorium
