Cheese + tapioca flour = deliciousness

We've started "Sunday Funday" which pretty much means a lazy Sunday at someone's apartment and copious amounts of food. Vonatron (this is your new name now on my blog) donated her apartment this time. Last time she tried to make Pao de Queijo but apparently it failed. This time I tried my hand at it. I used a different recipe (pretty much the most basic one I could find) and they came out totally legit. At first I was super worried when I was trying to beat in the tapioca flour since it was really hard to incorporate it (also made a huge mess). But in the end it all worked out and after reading the recipe reviews, it seems that I could've done half butter, half oil and also upped the amount of tapioca flour in the recipe. The dough is extremely sticky, so I kinda just plopped down chunks of dough onto a baking sheet. We had made some bacon in the oven so I just reused the bacon fat greased baking sheet.

End results: delicious.

Pao de Queijo

adapted from food.com

2 cups tapioca flour

1 cup milk

1/2 cup butter*

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups Parmesan cheese**

2  large eggs

Preheat oven to 400F

Bring the milk, salt and butter to a boil and then remove from heat. Make sure not the burn the milk.

Slowly add the tapioca flour, constantly stirring with a wooden spoon until incorporated. It might take a while but it will work. You can add up to 1/2 cup more of tapioca flour if you want to be able to form actual balls at the end.

Next add the two eggs, one at a time, followed by the cheese. Stir until everything is incorporated. If the dough is not too sticky, you can knead it. I didn't and it was fine.

Make balls or drop lumps (this is what I did) onto a well greased baking sheet and sprinkle with some more cheese. Bake 20 to 25 minutes until lightly golden brown on top. Eat while still hot!

* You can apparently substitute half the butter with oil as this is more traditional

** Some reviews also said that you should substitute half the Parmesan with a softer fresh cheese, like queso fresco for more moisture but you can probably use any kind of cheese