Brazilian Cheese Rolls (Pao de Queijo)

Brazilian Cheese Rolls

Prepared by Sarah Shilhavy, Photo by Jeremiah Shilhavy

This recipe is naturally gluten free. The cheesy, buttery, rolls or “puffs” have a light, crisp outside and a very chewy and soft inside.

Yield: 6 servings
Preparation Time: 15 minutes

1/3 cup coconut oil*
1 cup milk
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups tapioca flour
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Pour oil, milk and salt into a saucepan and heat. As soon as it comes to a boil, remove from heat and stir in tapioca flour until well mixed. Let cool for about 10 minutes.

Stir in eggs and cheese. The mixture will be chunky.

Drop rounded, 1/4 cup sized balls onto a lightly greased cookie sheet. You can also flour your hands with the tapioca flour and roll the mixture into balls.

Bake in preheated oven for 10-15 minutes. Rolls should be puffed and lightly browned.

*Part butter can also be used with the coconut oil.

Recipe courtesy Sarah Shilhavy

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Published on May 6, 2011

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

19 Comments

Karla February 5, 2015 at 10:51 am - Reply

This recipe is good! I made it the other day :) I am a Brazilian and I really enjoy making Brazilian cheese rolls (pao de queijo) for my family once a week. In my opinion, the best cheese that is easily accessible is good Parmesan cheese.

char October 21, 2012 at 12:27 pm - Reply

Can I use mild cheddar cheese?  I ran out of mozzarella

Jacqueline August 11, 2012 at 7:03 pm - Reply

I use this recipe to make pizza crust and then add toppings and put on broil. You can make a large pizza or 4 personal pizzas. It is so far the best we’ve had for gluten free!

Kathleen August 11, 2012 at 11:45 am - Reply

These look so good! I want to make them without using milk. Do you have any suggestions?

LocalAg August 11, 2012 at 11:04 am - Reply

for health reasons, ditch the corn oil and embrace coconut oil

Liz Garland August 11, 2012 at 10:11 am - Reply

Could rice or unflavored almond milk be used?

Angela April 4, 2012 at 7:10 pm - Reply

I made these tonite using half corn oil and half butter. Delicious!  I guess the coconut oil might add a different flavor, but they are awesome.

Jonathan December 29, 2011 at 9:51 pm - Reply

Our family loves these rolls.  We accidentally let the oil milk and salt mixture cool 10 minutes before adding the tapioca flour, and the result was a very liquid dough that we poured into a cookie sheet and baked for 20 – 25 minutes.  The resulting bread was very interesting looking, but also tasted fantastic.  We sprinkled a bit of garlic salt on top and enjoyed with chili.

Cynthia December 8, 2011 at 2:19 pm - Reply

These were great! Since going gluten free I have not had anything this “stretchy”! It seems like this would make a good pizza crust since I like the stretchy, doughy kind of pizza, not cracker crusts. It may be hard to get it in the right pizza shape though without pushing it down with a rolling pin.

Sarah:) November 29, 2011 at 12:18 am - Reply
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Thais: Yes. They’re the same thing.
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Thais November 28, 2011 at 11:38 pm - Reply

can I use tapioca starch instead?  Thanks

hfuller39 May 20, 2011 at 10:10 am - Reply

Could you make these with coconut flour and xanthan?

Sarah:) May 12, 2011 at 10:42 pm - Reply

Beth: I’m so glad you all enjoyed them!!

Beth May 12, 2011 at 9:34 pm - Reply

WOW! I am blown away by how good these rolls are! Between the 3 of us in our household, we polished off the whole bunch of these as soon as they came out of the oven!!!

Chelsey B. May 6, 2011 at 5:30 pm - Reply

There are few things that sound better than a cheese roll :) 

Thanks for sharing – I will be trying this out ASAP!

Take care,
— Chelsey

Sarah:) May 6, 2011 at 4:10 pm - Reply

Joan: No. The tapioca flour is essential for this recipe’s chewy texture.

Joan May 6, 2011 at 3:47 pm - Reply
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Could you do these with Almond flour?
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Sharon May 6, 2011 at 2:18 pm - Reply

This sounds good and the best part?……Oh so easy to fix!

Amanda May 6, 2011 at 12:24 pm - Reply

Live in Brazil for a year and half and I fell in love with Pao de Queijo. Will definitely have to try this recipe soon!! Thank you so much for sharing this.