Brazilian Cheesy Bread, or Pão de Queijo, is one of the staple dishes that show up every single year at the Disney Food and Wine Festival. While this soft cheesy bread isn’t complicated it does take a few steps to make. If you’ve visited the Walt Disney World Food and Wine Festival and always crave that cheesy light bread, then check out this easy recipe for Brazilian Cheesy Bread.
What is Brazilian Cheesy Bread?
Brazilian Cheesy Bread is a savory bread most often served at breakfast time with fruit or jam. What makes this little bread different than most is that it’s made with cassava flour ( or tapioca in some recipes), which causes it to be very light. Then because there is cheese in the dough you get that highly coveted cheese stretchiness everyone loves. Of course this is also a really lovely bread to have as a side to any Brazilian dinner or used to scoop up whatever dip you love most.
Is Brazilian Cheesy Bread Gluten-Free?
YES! Brazilian Cheesy Bread is gluten free. One of the many gluten free options at Disney’s Food and Wine Festival , Brazilian Cheesy Bread is gluten free because it uses cassava flour. And since cassava is not a wheat flour you don’t have to worry about gluten. Plus you can make this recipe vegan too, if you swap out the cheese for nutritional yeast.
Brazilian Cheesy Bread Ingredients
Hopefully the ingredients below are ones you have on hand. If not, you can easily grab them on Amazon or any local supermarket. Here are a few things to keep in mind. The unsweetened coconut milk used here is the kind found in the can, but not coconut cream. Avocado oil can get pricey. But, since the avocado oil here is just the cooking oil used in this recipe, we just grabbed the Wal-Mart brand and it was absolutely sufficient for our needs in making this bread.
- 1 c. unsweetened coconut milk
- 1/2. c avocado oil
- 1 tsp. iodized sea salt
- 10 oz. cassava flour ( 2 cups)
- 2 large eggs
- 1 – 1/2 c. grated Parmigiano- Reggiano cheese, or Asiago ( or 1c. nutritional yeast)
We’d also recommend a Silpat baking mat just because we use these for everything and they are a lifesaver to make sure cookies, rolls, croissants, macrons- everything cooks evenly. An alternative would be to make sure the pan is lined with parchment paper. And be sure to grab a good, heavy duty Ice Cream Scoop. We used a Kitchen Aid Classic Ice Cream Scoop, because it’s absolutely the best one we’ve found and cuts through even the toughest ice cream.
How to Make Brazilian Cheesy Bread
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees
- Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats
- Place the milk, oil and salt in a medium saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat when big bubbles start to form.
- Add the cassava flour to the saucepan and stir with a wooden spoon until mixture is well combined. A gelatinous dough will form.
- Transfer the dough into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat the dough for a few minutes at medium speed until it appears smooth and is cool enough that you can touch it comfortably.
- Keeping the mixer on a medium speed, beat the eggs into the cooled mixture one at a time .Wait until the first egg is fully incorporated before adding the second egg. Scrape down the sides of the bowl regularly to ensure consistent mixing.
- If using cheese, beat it on medium speed. You’ll end up with a stretchy, sticky dough that is softer than a cookie dough, but stiffer than a cake batter.
- Scoop the dough with a small ice cream scoop and place on the baking sheets, spacing them evenly. You should have about 12 per sheet. Dip the scoop in a bowl of warm water in between scoops to keep dough from sticking.
- Place the baking sheets in the oven and reduce heat to 350 degrees. Bake for 15 minutes and then rotate the baking sheets.
- Bake for an additional 10-15 minutes, until bread is golden. Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes before serving.
This recipe is from the The Plant Paradox Cookbook by Steven R. Gundry M.D.
Brazilian Cheesy Bread Recipes Tips
- These little rolls are fairly easy to make, if you have a Kitchen Aid Mixer which comes with a paddle attachment. If you don’t have a stand mixer with a paddle attachment you can also mix these by hand for 10-15 minutes.
- The size of the rolls you make depends on the size of your ice cream scoop. We best liked the Kitchen Aid one above because it made the rolls a little bigger which warrants about 2-3 per person, and since this recipe makes 24- allows for an 8 person gathering.
- We’d also recommend to get the perfectly round shape that once you use your ice cream scoop to scoop out the dough, just use your hands for a few seconds to shape it more into a ball. Don’t handle the dough too much if you can help it. But they definitely look cuter when they’re perfectly round.
- Note that you cook for 15 minutes, turn the pan in the oven, and bake for another 15 minutes. Do not skip this step.
- You may notice, depending on how much cheese you used, that the inside of the bread feels gooey. This is normal. Though if you want it less gooey you can just let them cool.
What do you serve Brazilian Cheesy Bread with?
Since this is technically a breakfast food, you can just use jam, if you’re having it in the morning. But we also loved this along soups, stews and even jambalaya! Hopefully you love this little Disney Food and Wine Inspired recipe as much as we do.
Brazilian Cheesy Bread
Light cheesy rolls for use with jams or dips.
Ingredients
- 1 c. unsweetened coconut milk
- 1/2. c avocado oil
- 1 tsp. iodized sea salt
- 10 oz. cassava flour ( 2 cups)
- 2 large eggs
- 1 - 1/2 c. grated Parmigiano- Reggiano cheese, or Asiago ( or 1c. nutritional yeast)
Directions
- Step 1 Preheat the oven to 450 degrees
- Step 2 Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats
- Step 3 Place the milk, oil and salt in a medium saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat when big bubbles start to form.
- Step 4 Add the cassava flour to the saucepan and stir with a wooden spoon until mixture is well combined. A gelatinous dough will form.
- Step 5 Transfer the dough into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat the dough for a few minutes at medium speed until it appears smooth and is cool enough that you can touch it comfortably.
- Step 6 Keeping the mixer on a medium speed, beat the eggs into the cooled mixture one at a time. Wait until the first egg is fully incorporated before adding the second egg. Scrape down the sides of the bowl regularly to ensure consistent mixing.
- Step 7 If using cheese, beat it on medium speed. You’ll end up with a stretchy, sticky dough that is softer than a cookie dough, but stiffer than a cake batter.
- Step 8 Scoop the dough with a small ice cream scoop and place on the baking sheets, spacing them evenly. You should have about 12 per sheet. Dip the scoop in a bowl of warm water in between scoops to keep dough from sticking.
- Step 9 Place the baking sheets in the oven and reduce heat to 350 degrees. Bake for 15 minutes and then rotate the baking sheets.
- Step 10 Bake for an additional 10-15 minutes, until bread is golden. Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes before serving.
Rochelle Mariah is a writer, designer and photographer with an MLIS in Information Science and a B.S. in Arch and Design. Determined to make Planning a DIY Disney Vacation easier she makes lots of lists and drinks lots of coffee. When not designing apparel at Polka Dot Pixie Shop, she's watching old movies and planning the holidays. She has been traveling to Disney destinations since 2010.
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