Pão de queijo, or Brazilian cheese bread, is made from cassava starch and commonly filled with minas cheese. It is gluten-free and popular in Brazilian cuisine and culture, sold in bakeries, markets, and restaurants. Similar variations are found throughout South America.
Bread made with cheese is a universal combination around the world, and the term “cheese sandwich” may accordingly be common. However, it is closely associated with a type of baked bread that is very popular in the country of Brazil and other parts of South America. Pão de queijo, or “cheese bread” in Portuguese, is technically not a bread, which is made from the flour of ground grains such as wheat. This is instead made from a finely powdered starch derived from the thick roots of a plant called cassava.
The main ingredient in a Brazilian cheese sandwich is called polvilho azedo, or almidon agrio in Spanish. In other parts of the world, this slightly sour-tasting starch is commonly called cassava flour or tapioca. The unprocessed root of the cassava plant is usually called yuca. To make basic cheese sandwiches, cassava flour is combined with milk, eggs, butter or oil, and crumbled cheese. The mixture is kneaded into a dough for baking in the oven.
In Brazil, the most commonly used cheese is called minas cheese, named for the fertile agricultural region of Minas Gerais. It is a well-ripened white cow’s cheese with a slightly bitter taste. Feta, cheddar, mozzarella and Parmesan are other cheeses that can be used.
The cheese sandwich is gluten-free, the proteins in grass grains like wheat that hold starches together. Cassava starch, however, has the same elasticity property as gluten, resulting from the starch’s ability to absorb a lot of moisture. The air gets trapped in the dough and as a result, the baked buns are slightly rough. They are unleavened – they contain no baking powder, baking soda, or other agents to introduce air into the dough.
Fresh out of the oven, a cheese sandwich is typically small, perfectly round with a slightly flattened bottom. Pale gold in color, its crispy crust will be thin with perhaps flecks of slightly charred cheese. The inside, also called a breadcrumb, is soft, a bit mushy and chewy from the melted cheese. They are made anywhere from bite size to 6 inches (15cm) in diameter. It’s especially popular for breakfast, perhaps served with fruit and coffee.
Cheese sandwiches are fairly easy to bake and a staple of many Brazilian home kitchens, but they are even more central to Brazilian cuisine and culture. Bakeries abound, selling them by the dozen. Markets offer them as balls of frozen dough, ready to bake. Restaurants called tapiocarias exclusively serve these cheese breads and other dishes made from tapioca flour. Many street vendors sell them as savory and candy snacks to pedestrians.
In much of South America, cheese bread is very similar. There may be regional or national differences in shapes, ingredients and flavours. The country of Paraguay can bake them with cornmeal in small donut shapes, called chipás. Cornmeal could also be an additional ingredient in sandwiches from Bolivia and Columbia, called cuñapé and pandebono, respectively.
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