Pão de Queijo

One time, my mom bought a package mix online for making pão de queijo after trying it with some Brazilian friends.  It was a really nice treat, so when I found a recipe for making it from scratch and realized that I have cassava flour available to me here in Uganda, I really wanted to make it.  So, I bought Parmesan cheese in the US and brought it to Uganda just so I could make this bread! 

First of all, I discovered (by trying it) that using my silicone baking mat in a gas oven with an open flame above it does not result in any destruction of the baking mat.  Which is good.

On to the recipe.  This is what you need:

1 c. milk
1/2 c. oil
1 tsp. salt
2 c. cassava flour
2 eggs
1 c. Parmesan cheese

Heat the milk, oil, and salt on the stove until it comes to a boil.  Then, remove from the heat and add the cassava flour.  Use your muscles to stir it vigorously.  Continue to beat the dough until it gets cool enough that you can add the eggs without having them start cooking.  I don't have an electric hand mixer - I just have my hands - so I did this with a spoon.  But if you live somewhere with electric tools, it would surely be easier to use one.

Once the dough has cooled, beat in the eggs.  Then, beat in the cheese.  Put Tablespoon-sized scoops of dough onto your baking mat (which should be on a baking sheet).  Now, put the pão de queijo into an oven that has been preheated to 450F.  At this point, right when you put them in, turn the heat down to 350F and bake for 25-30 minutes.  In my case, I had to guess on the temperatures (with my no-temperature gauge oven), but they still turned out great!

Another cool thing is that I didn't have quite enough plain cassava flour for the recipe, so I had to add about 1/2 c. of flour that was mixed with sorghum flour (used for making millet bread) and it still was the proper taste and consistency.  And ever so slightly more healthy (even though these are not really healthy at all...)