This month, for the Secret Recipe Club, we were lucky enough to be assigned Bewitching Kitchen. This is a bit of international food blogger love, because the author of Bewitching Kitchen was born and raised in Sao Paolo, Brazil. So we were pretty excited to try our hands at some Brazilian recipes! I’d been meaning to try Pao de Queijo (pronounced “little cheesey popover things”) for a while now, so this was the perfect excuse! They’re delightful little popovers, be careful, it’s easy to eat a bunch of them…

BRAZILIAN CHEESE BREAD
(adapted from Fer, original recipe from Neide)

1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 cup tapioca starch
1/4 cup farmer’s cheese (see comments)
1 T Parmiggiano Reggiano cheese, grated
1/2 tsp salt

for topping (optional)
fresh rosemary leaves, chopped
kosher salt

Add all ingredients, except those for the topping, into a blender. Blend very well at full speed, stopping a couple of times to scrape the surface of the blender’s cup, making sure no bits of tapioca starch are left unmixed.

The mixture will be a little thinner than pancake batter. Pour the batter in mini-muffin tins, to no more than 3/4 of their capacity, as shown here. The recipe makes 24 little cheese breads.

Add a little bit of salt and rosemary on top, place in a 400F oven, and cook for 20 minutes.

Most will come out right away without sticking. If some stick slightly, allow them to cool for a few minutes and probe them out gently with the tip of a knife.

ENJOY!

Comments: In the original recipe, Neide was trying to mimic little cheese breads she had at a restaurant in Rio de Janeiro. She used exclusively Parmiggiano cheese in the batter. I’ve made this recipe many times, and now settled on a combination of two cheeses: a melting type, preferably Mexican, and a small amount of Parmiggiano to sharpen the taste. Of course, depending on the type of cheese, adjust the salt. In this batch I did not add any rosemary, but please do so, it is perfect with it.

They resemble popovers in texture, but are gluten-free, so folks with gluten allergies can still enjoy them!