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The first time I ever had Brazilian Cheese Bread was at a Brazilian steakhouse. I fell in love with my first bite. When I got home, I looked for a Brazilian Cheese Bread recipe to try to recreate it but never followed through.
This is why when a dietetic intern wanted to develop a recipe to recreate this fluffy cheese bread, I was like “YES!”. In part, because I remembered I wanted to be able to make this delicious gluten-free cheese bread at home and also because I knew you would love it too!
And so, Amanda Jones and I collaborated to bring you this Brazilian Cheese Bread recipe.
Brazilian Cheese Bread, also known as Pão de Queijo, is a traditional Brazilian snack. It is traditionally made with tapioca flour and cheese in a wood burning stove. And often, it’s enjoyed with coffee.
The important part for my gluten-free readers? Brazilian cheese bread is naturally gluten-free.
This is likely because at conception, Brazil was not suitable for growing grains like wheat. Because of this, people turned to cassava.
In the early days of Pão de Queijo, the bread was primarily made of cassava. Though today’s form of Brazilian cheese bread is made with both tapioca flour and cheese.
Other things are often added in, like xanthan gum, baking powder, and cream to build the bread into a pillowy gluten-free cheese bread.
This particular recipe uses a #60 cookie scoop to portion out the cheese bread balls. If you don’t have one, you could also get away with using a tablespoon.
Using just almond flour in this cheese bread recipe made the bread come out way too dense. Adding in xanthan gum helped trap in more air giving this bread more of a light and doughy texture, as opposed to a dense texture.
That said, the safety of xanthan gum is often questioned. However, in general, xanthan gum is safe.
There are many ways to enjoy this Brazilian Cheese Bread recipe:
The beauty of this savory delicious gluten-free cheese bread is that it pretty much goes with everything.
