Brazilian cheese bread!

Over the weekend, roomie M and I made pao de queijo, literally "cheese bread" - a Brazilian tapioca-based dough rolled into little balls and baked.

Salty, savory and succulently snackable, these pint-sized parcels are a great and decently easy snack to make - but careful, they are quite filling and will spoil your appetite if you're not careful!

Reason number 1 I like living in Ghana (so far!) is the climate, which leads to Reason number 2: the produce!  The stuff that grows fresh year-round here is much of the same fruits and veggies you find in Mexican (and in this case, Brazilian) food.  Cassava flour is used to make local food so it's sold in many corner shops.  Though the cheese, that's not gonna be showing up in Auntie Margaret's convenience store any time soon.  

I heard avocados are coming back into season.  Count me so in.

Pao de Queijo

recipe courtesy of Roomie M

Ingredients

1/3 cup water

1/3 cup olive oil

1/3 cup milk

1 tsp salt

2 cups tapioca flour

2 tsp garlic powder

1 1/2 cups shredded cheese (recipe calls for parmesan; we used mature cheddar)

1 egg

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375.
2. Measure out the flour and garlic powder and set aside.
3. In a pot, bring water, olive oil, milk and salt just to the boil, then remove immediately from heat and stir in the flour and garlic powder.  Mix thoroughly.
4. Let the mixture cool about 10 minutes.  This is a good time to shred the cheese if you haven't yet.
5. Mix in the cheese and the egg.
6. Form into tablespoon-sized balls or a little larger.  Bake at 375F for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown.