Brazilian Cheese Bread Recipe- Pao de Queijo Recipe
Fogo de Chao Bread is actually Brazilian Cheese Bread or pão de queijo. Once a year for his birthday my husband drags me to Fogo de Chao, a Brazilian restaurant. If you are not familiar with the name please allow me to explain.
Fogo de Chao Bread, also known as Brazilian cheese bread or Pao de Queijo, are easier to make at home than you think. This gluten-free bread is also yeast free and only takes 30 minutes!
Men running around with meat on sticks using swords to swiftly cut a slab direct to your plate. While I am a fan of meats, I am not a huge fan of the experience and atmosphere.
I say men and not “women” because gacho are traditionally male. I have personally never seen a female gacho, but I suspect they do exist!
I find it anxiety provoking, busy and noisy, which is why it only happens once per year. For a meat-eatin’ person it is heavenly. Unlimited meat in the most manly of styles, on a skewer.
Although, Fogo has certainly changed a few things about their ambiance and I now enjoy it more than I used to!
In an attempt to not be totally put off by his birthday wishes I try to focus on the positive. In this case it is the Cheese Puff Bread, market table and the famous Fogo de Chao Bacon. These little nuggets are my version of Fogo de Chao Brazilian Bread.
I researched recipes and found numerous variations. Many had ingredients difficult to find in the states or at least in Baltimore City. Below is the closest I could make with local and easy to find items.
The most obscure will be the tapioca flour (usually easy to find in the baking aisle and sometimes labeled tapioca starch) and maybe Cotija cheese, which I was able to easily find at Whole Foods.
Both have become mainstream food trends and are available at more and more general grocers.
Most people believe the chewy center is melted cheese and to some extent they are correct. It is cheese and uncooked dough. Basically you under cook to produce a doughy center. My cookie dough lovers will love this aspect!
They do get to a high enough temperature to eliminate potential raw eggs issues. Another plus?
These golden nuggets require no yeast, therefore no rising, which results in a homemade dinner roll in under 30 minutes! No yeast bread, foodie friends!
And this is a gluten-free bread! Please indulge in these buttery, two bite cheesy heaven poppers. You’ll thank me!
Also check out my other CopyCat Recipes:
- Texas Roadhouse Rolls
- Texas Roadhouse Honey Cinnamon Butter
- Carrabba’s Italian Bread Dip
- Peter Luger Steak Sauce
- Fogo de Chao Brazilian Cheese Puff Bread
- Orange Julius
- Japanese Ginger Dressing
- Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits
- In-N-Out Burger Animal Style Fries
Tools for making Brazilian Cheese Bread:
Heavy Bottom Sauce Pan– this will be one of your most used kitchen tools. Having something that is heavy bottom will distribute heat better and prevent burning whether you are using an electric or gas range.
Muffin Tins– Muffin tins are for more than making muffins! Use them to make mini meatloaf, cupcakes and more!
Good Extra Virgin Olive Oil– A good olive oil will taste like, well, olives, while a poorly made one will taste like vegetable oil. Gross. While people tend to favor Italian and Greek olive oils, I prefer to buy mine domestically.
There are some great ones out there from all over the world, but the reporting of ingredients isn’t always the same and you could find that your super expensive olive oil was actually cut with vegetable oil.
Questions you might have about how to make Brazilian Cheese Bread:
Can you freeze pao de queijo? You can freeze baked cheese puff bread. Simply place them in airtight plastic bags and squeeze out as much air as possible. Freeze for up to 6 months.
Can you make Brazilian cheese bread with regular flour? You can certainly try, but it won’t have the same fluffy texture.
Can you make Brazilian cheese bread with almond flour? Same answer as above.
How do you store Brazilian cheese bread? If you have any leftovers, you can store at room temperature in an airtight plastic container. You don’t have to refrigerate, but if you prefer to do so, you can.
How do you reheat Brazilian cheese puff bread? Like most breads, it will get gummy and chewy if reheated in the microwave. Even though it takes a few extra minutes, I suggest wrapped in aluminum foil and reheating in an oven preheated to 350 degrees for about 5-10 minutes.
What cheese can be substituted for cotija? You can use many hard cheese, like Pecorino or Parmesan cheese.
The batter is hard to mix in the sauce pan, how else can I mix it? Feel free to transfer the batter to a stand mixer, large bowl or even a blender to get it good and well blended. I just don’t like to make more of a mess than needed.
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Cheese Puff Bread- Copy Cat Fogo de Chao Bread
Ingredients
- 2 cups tapioca flour
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 5 oz Parmesan or Cotija cheese finely shredded
- 2 eggs at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- Cooking Spray
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease the inside of a mini muffin tin with cooking spray.
- In a medium sauce pan, combine butter, salt and milk. Bring to a low boil.
- As soon as mixture boils, transfer it to a mixing bowl. Using an electric hand mixer or stand mixer, slowly add in tapioca flour. Be very careful because the mixture can spit out and it is hot!
- Add in cheese, eggs, sugar and oil. Mixture will be the consistency of a wet bread dough. It is very sticky and moist.
- Spoon dough into individual muffin tins to about 2/3 full.
- Bake for 20 minutes. Puffs will start to puff right out of the tin and be golden brown on the tops.
- Serve while warm. Enjoy!
- If you’ve tried this recipe, please come back and leave us a comment!
Tried this recipe and it was an exact replica of Fogo de Chao! I made them as a surprise for my husband because he just devours them anytime we go eat there. I know he’s going to love them. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Great! We love hearing that YOU LOVED the recipe and took time to come tell us. Cheers!
This is the bomb!! It’s so damn good! My husband calls it incredibly delicious and addictive lil baby crack muffins! I followed the recipe to the T! Thanks for sharing this recipe 😘
I LOVE that you LOVE it!
This is our favorite recipe! It’s a goof-proof recipe that makes delicious cheese rolls every single time. It’s so good that my boyfriend requested a cheese roll cake instead of a traditional birthday cake, so that’s what I’ll be doing this Saturday!
LOL- that is awesome! I have to agree, there is nothing better than cheesy bread 🙂
This recipe is 100% spot on. Easy and very simple for “non-bakers”
Thank you for stopping by to let us know! Have a fabulous day!
OH MY GOODNESS!!!!! It taste EXACTLY like the fogo bread ???? I filled mine muffin tins up a little bit more than recommended and they breades turned out PERFECT. Definently recommend filling them up to just below the top! They turned out perfect!!!! I dont have whole milk so I just used 2% and it worked just fine!
Thanks for coming by to let us know!!!
A little to cheesy if you ask me
Thanks for letting us know! I didn’t know too cheesy was thing 😉
I used tapioca flour from a brand pure organically, perhaps that’s why… but my comment is that these taste too much like tapioca. I’ve made the recipe with Parmesan and also with mozerella & cheddar.
Mmm… perhaps! I make these all the time and I don’t think they taste at all like tapioca. Glad you are testing them with different cheeses!
Do you think I could use cream instead of whole milk?
It would probably do just fine, but might be thicker. You might want to cut down on the cheese a little. If you try it, come back and let us know!
I have made this multiple times for my husband and they are so good. Really saves us a trip to Fogo, because let’s be honest I would only go for the bread.
Sweet! Thanks for stopping by to let us know. They are one of our favorites as well!
Fuck yes. <3
Just made your recipe! I don’t even know if I can formulate in words how perfect the rolls came out! My house smells gloriously like hot cheese and my stomach is about to burst. Thank you so much for sharing! *Virtual handshake*
Oh, that makes me heart happy! And thank YOU for stopping by to tell me you love them. All too often folks only stop by when they don’t like something so positive comments make my day!
I made LOTS of these before and after Hurricane Harvey hit Texas. Luckily, we had already bought milk, and there was plenty of tapioca flour and cotija cheese left in our store. 🙂
so, here are my hints/observations:
1. don’t overboil the milk/butter/salt mixture (got distracted by my son and it happened). I felt it made the finished rolls tougher, still tasted fine though
2. DO use whole milk, or the batter will be really runny, too watery. again, still good, but not perfect. refrigerating the watery batter helped. dough isn’t like bread dough, more like cake batter, but less than whole milk was watery.
3. you can refrigerate dough and make more rolls the next day. I just sat it out until it became closer to room temp. it will be thick! but.still works great. rewarming leftover rolls in the oven hardens them, or warning in the microwave results in oilier rolls, so do make what you want now and save the batter for later!
4. the hardest part of these (besides not eating an entire batch by myself) was grating the cheese. so..i figured out an EASY solution! use the paddle attachment on your stand mixer, break the cheese in quarters or chunks, and let the mixer crumble it for you!!! just put it in another bowl until you need it, but I left the cheese residue since it’s getting mixed in eventually, so don’t need to wash it before adding the boiled milk and butter. 🙂
these are a hit at my house, and since I’m gluten free, I don’t feel the need to pay for a steak meal just to get these delicious rolls!!! thanks 🙂
I’m hoping you are safe from harvey down there and SO glad you love these rolls as much as we do!
I am just seeing this recipe for the first time. I am preparing to do a “Potluck” for a Pastor who happens to have a “Gluten Allergy” (I can relate having to deal with Celiac Disease myself). My question is pretty simple … can these, if made in a large quantity (for a potluck for example for about 50-100 people) be held at a “warm” temp in something like a slow cooker? I have tried them warm, and they are W O N D E R F U L … but they lack something (actually they aren’t very appetizing) when cold. Thanks so much for any feedback.
Hi Pat, that is a really good question. I would assume so- but the slow cooker might create a little bit of steam making them slightly soggy. You can certianly try! I would try to make them as close to serving as possible. The crispy outside and gooey inside it was makes them so delicious. They can be eaten room temp, but are so much better warm.
Don’t use a slow cooker, bake them right before you leave , use a large bowls covered with a clean dish cloth , don’t use foil or anything because like any hot food they will sweat. I was a chef and that’s how we used to transport warm breads.
I used whole milk, and a mix of 4 shredded cheeses…only shredded Parmesan I could find, plus asiago, Romano, and another cheese. Boiled the milk/butter mix, then immediately off the burner. When I added the 2 cups of tapioca flour, then the other ingredients, the batter was REALLY runny. I then added about 1/3 cup more tapioca flour and mixed well, the batter was still a bit runny, but more like a batter now. After baking, brought them to an event and they were a BIG hit…everyone wanted the recipe, and most took some home. Delicious!!
I’m so glad to hear that! Yes, the batter is more like pancake batter than a traditional bread batter.
Does anyone know if batter can be refrigerated for later use?
I sometimes make mine ahead and just put it in the fridge and bake the next morning.
I refrigerated the batter – do I need it to come to room temp before pouring into pan to bake ?
I would let it sit for a bit, yes, or it may take longer to bake.
The “dough” was the consistency of pancake batter. I thought it would be more like a bread dough. Any reason this happened?
Hi Ezra, the batter is more of a batter than a bread dough, for sure, but it shouldn’t be super soupy. You used 2 cups tapioca flour to only 1 cup whole milk (not skim or 2%, it needs the fat to make it right)? Did they bake up ok?
The milk was the problem. Only had low fat milk. Now I’ll be trying this again!
Gotcha! Yea, gotta have that thicker milk for this one 🙂 Skim and low-fat is too watery.
Could I use non dairy milk?
Hi Josey, you can certainly try, but I have never made it them that way.You do need to use the cheese, so if someone can’t have dairy, this might not be the best recipe.
This really works. It’s as good as the real thing. We used 1/2 mozarella and 1/2 cheddar.
I’m glad you enjoyed it and also that you took the time to stop by and give me feedback. Thank you, Francisco!
Followed this recipe and it tastes just like the bread from the restaurant. This makes close to two batches, but bake that second batch. They disappear really fast.
Thank you!
How long could I keep the dough for? If I didn’t use it all could I just refrigerate the rest of the dough and finish baking it the next day? I agree that freshly baked is definitely better than reheating these! So delicious though, I make this recipe all the time!! Thanks!
Just made these and they turned out delicious! Hard part is stopping at one.. oh, what the heck, here comes number two!
I know, right?? Thank you so much for swinging back through to let me know you enjoyed them. It means a lot!
I was able to find the tapioca flour at Food City. It also goes by the name “Arina de yucca”. I’m hispanic and its quite easy to find in stores that sell Latin American brands.
My dough turned out so sticky that I found it very difficult to spoon out portions. Instead I coated my hands with raw egg and formed balls by hand. They came out smooth, glossy, and beautifully round and consistent.
I used the whole milk.
Is it supposed to become a really tight mixture when you add the tapioca flour?
Mine just are not turning out right, when I add the tapioca flour to the milk/butter mixture it get tight very fact and super lumpy, Then in the oven it doesn’t change at all….
I’m sorry you are having trouble, Katie. What % milk are you using?
If you don’t finish it an you store it in the fridge and microwave it soft?
Yep! Of course it isn’t as good as freshly baked, but still yummy.
I made these for Christmas & they were great! Tapioca flour wasn’t hard to find at all. Thanks for sharing the recipe! 🙂
I’m so glad you enjoyed them!
You can use AP flour but they won’t turn out as good. Tapioca flour has a softer consistency than AP which makes the puffs seem lighter and airier. That’s not to say they are bad…if I don’t have tapioca flour I will sometimes do 1 cup AP flour and 1/2 cup of corn starch instead of 2 cups tapioca flour. For reference, here is a site with substitution information for Tapioca flour: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/tapioca-flour-substitute.html
Can I use self rising flour or just all purpose flour? Will they turn out as well?
why do you have to boil those ingredients first? can’t you just melt the butter in the microwave, and then add in milk and salt?
I suppose you could. I rarely use the microwave. I lived without one for a year once!
Yeah, it got to a pretty high boil. I used refrigerated Sun of Italy grated cheese instead of grating it myself, so that could have been the issue, too. I’ll try it again with fresh cheese and more attention to the stove top! Thanks!
Good luck next time!
Why is sugar needed in this recipe? Can i cook without it?
It balances acidic flavors and caramelizes, but you can certianly make them without.
Could be a couple if things, a high boil, yes, slightly over cooking in the oven, the type of cheese you used or how long you waited to serve after baking. Most cheese get rubbery when melted and it sits too long, also bringing to a boil can separate the oils and lastly different cheeses have different moisture levels, liked Kraft parmesan cheese will not turn out the same as freshly grated. Do any of these sound like potential problems?
Mine turned out more rubbery in the middle than cheesey. Could this be the result of the stovetop mixture going to a high boil due to extreme distraction by the chef? Or did I do something else wrong?
Could be a couple if things, a high boil, yes, slightly over cooking in the oven, the type of cheese you used or how long you waited to serve after baking. Most cheese get rubbery when melted and it sits too long, also bringing to a boil can separate the oils and lastly different cheeses have different moisture levels, liked Kraft parmesan cheese will not turn out the same as freshly grated. Do any of these sound like potential problems?
These were so easy. The only problem I had was finding the flour, but I went to Whole Foods as suggested and found it right away.
These were so easy and tasted just like Fogo.
Made these for Chris and I and they turned out great! Had a little issue finding tapioca flour, but luckily I was able to stop by the Savory Experiments kitchen to borrow some. Will definitely make again!
Looks YUMMY!