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Easy Brazilian Cheese Bread Recipe (Pao de Queijo)

August 31, 2018 (Last Updated: December 6, 2024)
Brazilian Cheese Bread

A precious gift from my Brazilian friend Luana and her aunt Jovita, this authentic, easy recipe for Brazilian cheese bread, Pao de Queijo, is such a great gluten-free and lectin-free bread alternative. It only requires five ingredients and about 10 minutes to put together.

With a golden brown and crispy crust and a gooey, salty, cheesy inside, this easy Pao de Queijo will be perfect for breakfast with butter and jam, as an afternoon snack with tea, or even as mini sandwich bread.

My first experience with Brazilian cheese bread

I remember the first time I had Brazilian cheese bread, Pao de Queijo. It was at a Churrasco restaurant in Dubai. I ate so much that I could barely have any meat after. They were so good.

Since they are originally made with cassava flour and easy to make Plant Paradox compliant, I’ve been contemplating making them for a long time. Still, I’ve always been intimidated by recipes that seem rather complicated, like the classic Pao de Beijo recipe.

What I have here is a treasure because it is absolutely delicious, it takes 10 minutes to put together, and the recipe comes straight from Brazil.

The most precious gift – an authentic but easy Brazilian cheese bread recipe

Jovita is Luana Ferrari’s grand auntie, and Luana is a social media friend. She is Brazilian, lives in Paris, loves to eat real food, and is as passionate about food and cooking at home as I am. So in a proper social media friend fashion, I stalk her all the time and follow her travels and culinary adventures.

When she started posting about being back home in Brazil and enjoying foods and flavors that reminded her of childhood, I became curious. Thank God she enjoys the exchange and is as excited about sharing culinary stories of her family as I am to be at the receiving end.

To cut this story short (-er), I ended up with the most precious gift, an easy Pao de Queijo recipe (Brazilian cheese bread) her aunt Jovita makes, handwritten by Jovita’s brother in 1983, just before Christmas (I was four years old at the time!). And I’m now passing it forward thanks to Luana’s generosity.

The easiest Pao de Queijo recipe you will ever find

If you don’t read Portuguese, the original ingredients were:

  • cassava flour
  • oil
  • cured (aged) cheese
  • eggs
  • milk

And four lines of instructions. My kind of recipe.

I used Otto’s Cassava flour, full-fat coconut milk (unsweetened, in a can, I buy 365 from Whole Foods), Pecorino Romano cheese, avocado oil, and two pastured eggs. Luana told me that Pecorino Romano is also her choice when she needs to replace aged Brazilian cheese.

The way this recipe comes together might change depending on the cassava flour you are using. If you are in the US, I recommend using Otto’s brand; if not, you might have to adjust the quantities slightly (add more flour if too runny or more milk if too hard.

It is super easy to make them. It took me 10 minutes to make the dough and 30 minutes to bake it, and the result was mind-blowing.

Can be served both warm and cold

The crust is golden brown and crispy and hard, and the inside is gooey, salty, cheesy goodness. I’m not even going to mention how many I had, for the sake of being informed to make this post, of course.

But in all seriousness, I had to try it warm and cold, and after keeping it for a few hours in the fridge, all of them were amazing.

How to store them

Store the Brazilian cheese bread on the counter for a day in an air-tight container or freeze it. The best way to store them is to freeze them.

I kept them in a Stasher bag at room temperature overnight. They are still soft the next day, they just lose a little bit of shape and the hard crust, but they are still as tasty as on the first day.

Brazilian cheese bread can be used as a delicious sandwich

How to eat Brazilian cheese bread

Auntie Jovita and her dad are from Ibiraci, a small town in the State of Minas Gerais in Brazil (North of Rio). At the farm they grew up, Pao de Queijo (‘cheese bread’) was an everyday food (and it still is).

In Brazil, cheese bread can be served as breakfast with butter, jelly, or jam, had as a snack in the afternoon with coffee, or even used for sandwiches, with pretty much anything you can imagine (guess what I’m having tomorrow?). I had some with homemade strawberry jam, and it was delicious.

This is not a keto bread

Because some of you have commented, this is not a low-carb bread. I have added the nutritional label below. Anything made with cassava flour will not be low-carb or keto friendly.

For more information on gluten-free and lectin-free flour types and which ones are keto-friendly, check this article: Quick Guide to Lectin-Free, Gluten-Free Flours

Vegan Brazilian Bread

For a vegan version of Brazilian cassava bread, try our Pao de Beijo recipe, made with cassava flour and sweet potato.

*This post contains affiliated links, which means I get a small commission if you choose to purchase something via one of my links, at no extra cost to you.

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Brazilian Cheese Bread

Easy Brazilian Cheese Bread Recipe (Pao de Queijo)

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Description

A precious gift from my Brazilian friend Luana and her aunt Jovita, this authentic, easy recipe for Brazilian cheese bread, Pao de Queijo, is such a great gluten-free and lectin-free bread alternative. It only requires five ingredients and about 10 minutes to put together. With a golden brown and crispy crust and a gooey, salty, cheesy inside, this easy Pao de Queijo will be perfect for breakfast with butter and jam, as an afternoon snack with tea, or even as mini sandwich bread. 


Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cup cassava flour
  • 1/2 cup full-fat coconut milk (in a can)
  • 1/2 cup avocado oil
  • 2 pasture-raised eggs
  • 200g grated Pecorino Romano cheese (about 2 heaping cups)

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 410F.
  2. Prepare a muffin pan by oiling it (you can use ghee or avocado oil).
  3. Mix coconut milk with avocado oil and eggs. Add the flour and incorporate it into the wet mixture. Add the cheese and mix. You will get a sticky dough. 
  4. Split the dough in two, then each half in two halves, then each of the quarters in three equal portions. You will end up with 12 balls that will fit in the muffin pan. Add them to the muffin pan and bake for 30 minutes or until slightly golden on top. (Mine took exactly 30 minutes, but keep an eye on them just in case your oven is slightly different).

Notes

Store on the counter for a day in an air-tight container or freeze. The best way to store them is to freeze them and reheat them in the oven. The consistency of the dough might differ when you use another type of cassava flour. If you are in the US, I recommend using Otto’s brand. If you don’t have access to Otto’s, you might have to adjust the flour-to-liquid ratio to get a sticky dough slightly. 

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45 Comments

  • Reply
    Ramona Herner
    September 14, 2020 at 1:41 pm

    I tried to make these today and before adding the cheese my dough was crumbly and powdery. I used the exact amounts listed. I added the cheese and then kept adding avocado oil and more coconut milk alternately until I got something I could make balls out of. I did use coconut cream in a can not milk. I don’t see how that would change the dough consistency though. I ate two and then realized the carbs in these are crazy high.

    • Reply
      Claudia
      September 16, 2020 at 10:52 am

      Hi Ramona, it strange you had this problem, I had many people making this recipe and never heard it didn’t work. It might be the coconut cream, it was probably not enough liquid to absorb the dry ingredients. Sometimes different brands of cassava flour can act differently, but not that much. Anyway, you did the right thing by just adding more liquid. In the future, if you only have coconut cream, mix it with water until you get the required quantity of coconut milk (coconut milk is in fact coconut cream, mixed with water). As per the carbs, there is no where on this site mentioned this is a low carb recipe, and my site is a collection of plant paradox compliant / lectin-free recipes, not a low carb eating plan. Everyone chooses what and how it fits their own dietary plan. You can eat this bread once a year, once a month or once a week if that fits you dietary needs. I used to make these a few times a year, but I don’t eat them anymore, not because of carbs but because I gave up dairy. I hope this site is for everyone who follows a lectin-free diet and for all occasions, no matter the specific personal restrictions. xx

  • Reply
    Lauren
    February 25, 2020 at 4:53 pm

    I’m allergic to avocado. Do you have any other suggestions for a type of oil you would recommend for this recipe?

    • Reply
      Claudia
      February 26, 2020 at 4:36 pm

      Hi Lauren. Olive oil would work, it might give a slight taste but I wouldn’t mind. That’s what I would use, olive oil.

  • Reply
    Ruth
    January 30, 2020 at 11:07 pm

    Claudia, I’ve made this recipe several times, with varying results, and never has the mixture become even remotely “sticky;” am I not mixing for a long enough time?? I’ve tried other people’s recipes (one where I poured the batter from my blender into a cupcake pan came out divine), so I have some sense of how these should end up. I’ll keep on trying, as we love these!!

    • Reply
      Claudia
      February 1, 2020 at 11:51 am

      Hi Ruth, not sure what to say… You should end up with a dough, not batter. It has to be worked a little bit. I had meany people making this one and I never heard anyone having a problem. You will end up with a dough, from which you can shape small balls, so in no way is somethig you could pour into a muffin pan. Maybe next time you make them you sould send me a picture or video of the process so I can underatnd exatly what happens?

  • Reply
    Bob
    October 9, 2019 at 7:40 am

    Is this bread allowed in Phase 1, considering it uses eggs? Are eggs allowed in phase 1 at all?

    • Reply
      Claudia
      October 11, 2019 at 9:45 am

      Hi Bob, no eggs and no cheese in Phase 1. But phase 1 is only 3 days.

  • Reply
    Ss
    September 26, 2019 at 10:58 am

    Nutritional information would be useful for keto people

    • Reply
      Claudia
      September 30, 2019 at 10:50 am

      Hi Stella, you can calculate nutritional information with an app on your phone. Frankly that’s not how I eat and not my focus.

      • Reply
        Ramona Herner
        September 14, 2020 at 1:37 pm

        274 calories each, 18.9g carbs, 18g fat and 7.9g protein. I had no idea they would be so heavy on the carbs. Not Keto at all.

        • Reply
          Claudia
          December 8, 2022 at 4:56 am

          Hi Ramona, yes, cassava flour is not keto friendly. It’s made of a starchy root vegetable, called cassava or yuca root.

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