A few months ago while I was taking a web development course I saw another student walk into the building with a large bag labeled “BRAZILIAN CHEESE BREAD.” I became fascinated. What was Brazilian cheese bread? Was it something like khachapuri? I researched it and found that they’re little puffy rolls made of something sort of like a pâte a choux of tapioca flour and Parmesan. We dumpstered a bag of tapioca flour months ago and I set it aside to eventually use to make pão de queijo. Around the same time we also found many small bags of Yu Puffs, which were essentially pão de queijo but in the form of a dry, crunchy puff rather than a soft bun, so I had an idea of the sort of flavor I was going for.

Now that I had a block of BellaVitano Gold, a buttery cheese similar enough to Parmesan to use in place of it, I decided the time had come to make cheese bread. I assume that I’ve never found a chunk of real Parmesan because it is so highly sought after that there is no waste; even the rinds are sold to be boiled into broth, as though the rinds are the bones of the cheese. After finding over a dozen types of cheese at once, I find that Parmesan or a close analog is really the only one I need, in essentially every recipe, and that the only reason I never bought it regularly is that I lacked the executive function to grate cheese; something I have only gained by imagining that I am cooking for the readers of this blog.

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I used a recipe by GLOJAO from Allrecipes, using almond milk and olive oil for the milk and fat. I began by bringing half a cup of olive oil, 1/3 cup of water, 1/3 cup almond milk, and a teaspoon of Himalayan pink salt to a boil, then removed it from the heat and stirred in 2 cups of tapioca starch and 2 cloves of minced garlic (the only store-bought ingredient I used). This, after considerable effort in stirring, formed a stiff, shaggy mass. I was afraid that I had ruined it, because the dough seemed too stiff to mix anything else into. I let the dough rest for 15 minutes then added two beaten eggs and 2/3 cup of grated cheese effortlessly.

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I rolled the dough into balls and baked it at 375°F for about 20 minutes. I tasted a bit of the raw dough while forming the balls. It was delicious, soft and garlicky and fatty. When I opened the oven, I could hear not just the sizzling of the oil but a faint whistling coming from the bread.

The result is a bit reminiscent of Red Lobster’s Cheddar Bay Biscuits, or mozzarella sticks, with a softly crusty exterior and soft, doughy, cheesy, oily interior. They are absolutely delicious, and if you are unable to eat gluten and want something bready and cheesy and fatty, you need some pão de queijo in your life.