Pão de queijo

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Type	Bread
Course	Breakfast or snack
Place of Origin	Brazil
Region or State	Minas Gerais
Main ingredients	Tapioca flour, cheese
Similar Dishes	Gougère, Chipa

Pão de queijo (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈpɐ̃w dʒi 'kejʒʊ], "cheese bread" in Portuguese) or Brazilian cheese bread is a small, baked cheese roll or cheese bun, a popular snack and breakfast food in Brazil. It is a traditional Brazilian recipe, originating in the state of Minas Gerais.

Pão de queijo originated in Brazil. Enslaved people would soak and peel the cassava root and make bread rolls from it. At this time, there was no cheese in the rolls. At the end of the 19th century, more ingredients became available to the colonial community such as milk and cheese. They added milk and cheese to the tapioca roll making what we now know as pão de queijo.[1] It is inexpensive, often sold from streetside stands by vendors carrying a heat-preserving container. In Brazil, it is also very commonly found in groceries, supermarkets and bakeries, industrialized or freshly made. It is also widely eaten in northern Argentina.

Despite being referred to as "bread", the cheese bread is basically a type of starch tart cookie or sweet plus eggs, salt, vegetable oil, and cheese, with soft and elastic consistency and with a few variations.