Gluten-Free Brazilian Cheese Bread Rolls

Why This Recipe Works

Brazilian cheese bread rolls (pão de queijo) are typically made with tapioca starch, cheese, milk, oil, and eggs, so they are naturally gluten-free.There are many different approaches to developing these Brazilian cheese bread rolls, starting with varying mixing methods. Some recipes heat the batter on the stovetop and transfer it to a stand mixer before adding the eggs (much as you might make the dough for profiteroles or gougères). But we found that this method could be tricky. The heat made the tapioca starch quite gluey, and the dough became hard to handle. We preferred a simpler (and still traditional) approach that calls for making a looser dough (more like pancake batter) in a blender. Rather than shaping the dough by hand, we poured the resulting fluid batter into a greased mini muffin tin that we slid right into the oven. The high liquid content (from both milk and eggs) in the batter created a lot of steam in the oven that helped the rolls to rise. (There’s no yeast or chemical leavener in this recipe.) We tested different types of cheese, and it was clear that these small rolls are best made with something potent, so they would pack a punch. We liked the combination of nutty Parmesan and tangy extra-sharp cheddar. These rolls are a fast snack or an accompaniment to dinner, ready in about 30 minutes (including time to heat the oven).