Brazilian Cheese Balls

prep time: 25 minutescook time: 30 minutesservings: 25 - 30 cheese balls

Today we have for you Guga's famous pão de queijo. In case you do not know Guga, he has two Youtube channels, Guga Foods and Sousvide Everything, where he cooks and experiments with all things meat. He has some great tips on how to prepare and grill meat, so make sure to check out his channels! One of our favorite videos is the "how to butcher picanha" video, where he explains in detail how to cut the most amazing steaks out of a piece of picanha. If you have not had these, you are missing out!

However, Guga also makes great sauces and side dishes. One of them are pão de queijo, which originate from Brazil. Instead of regular flour, these cheese balls are made with tapioca starch, an ingredient which cannot be replaced by any other kind of flour. Tapioca starch is not very commonly found in your regular supermarket, so we just order ours from Amazon.

Start of by mixing the tapioca starch with the salt in a large mixing bowl. Pour the milk and a neutral vegetable oil in a pan and heat over low to medium heat until the mixture starts bubbling. Add the liquid to your dry ingredients and carefully mix (the flour can be a bit dusty) until the dough comes together. At this point, the dough will pull strings from the side of the bowl and be quite hot. Let the dough cool slightly, until it is safe to add the eggs, and mix until incorporated. Add the grated cheeses, Parmesan and low-moisture mozzarella, in batches and mix until everything is well combined.

At this point, preheat your oven on the circulating air setting at 160 degrees Celsius. Prep a baking tray with parchment paper or a silicon mat and using two table spoons, drop golf ball-sized dollops of dough on the tray.

Do not worry, these do not have to look perfect, just make sure that you leave enough space between them. They go into the oven for about 30 minutes, until they have risen and are nicely browned. After baking, let them cool a bit before eating, but these are in fact best eaten warm.

Due to the tapioca starch, these dough balls turn out to be way chewier than regular dough balls, what makes them weirdly highly addictive. And they have a nice cheese pull to them when tearing them apart fresh out of the oven.

I like to enjoy mine plain and dipping them into Ranch dressing, or you can serve them as miniature burgers with your favorite cut of meat and sauce. This time round we had them with a homemade chimichurri sauce and of course picanha, reverse-seared to medium on our Weber.

Tip: Do not, whatsoever, use pre-grated Parmesan cheese. Buy a piece of good quality hard Italian cheese and freshly grate it at home. It will taste just so much better than using the packaged stuff.