Win your own gold medal with Brazilian cheese puffs

The Summer Olympics end this week with closing ceremonies on Sunday. Stick the landing by hosting a viewing party stocked with plenty of fresh-baked pao de queijo, Brazilian cheese bread.

It’ll be a gold medal for you.

These gooey, chewy cheese puffs are a basic snack and breakfast food in Brazil. Made with tapioca flour, they are gluten-free and actually seem to have a passing relationship with Japanese mochi. Biting into one provides the same bouncy sensation.

Traditional recipes call for queso fresco, a soft, fresh (as in unaged), mild cheese that is available in local stores including Safeway and Walmart. You can actually use any cheese, though, or a couple in combination, and because the recipe is so simple, you could try different blends to find what you like best.

I made three batches and settled on a mix of mozzarella and Parmesan. (Imagine how many I had to eat to get there. Poor me.)

The tapioca flour — also called manioc flour — is key. Finely milled, it is softer and finer than all-purpose and allows the puffs to, well, puff. In Brazil this bread might be made with sour tapioca flour — polvilho azedo — ground from fermented cassava pulp, but the easier-to-find basic tapioca flour is an acceptable substitute this far from the homeland.

Recipes vary some, but most stick to additional ingredients of milk, eggs, vegetable oil (or sometimes butter) and cheese. Some add a little garlic. Most use only salt, no other leavening, but I found that a little baking powder kept the bread softer as it cooled.

Still, these toasty little golf balls are meant to be eaten while warm. If you have leftovers, heat them up before eating or they’ll be hard and dry, and people will doubt your baking abilities.

Some recipes call for baking in muffin tins, but I prefer to simply roll the dough into balls, which hold their shape in the oven as long as you don’t make them too big.

Brazilian Cheese Bread

• 2 cups tapioca flour, plus more for dusting
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup milk
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 egg, slightly beaten
• 3/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Line cookie sheet with baking parchment.

Whisk together tapioca flour, baking powder and salt in mixing bowl.

Combine milk and oil in small pot; heat over medium high until foamy. Pour slowly into tapioca mixture; stir to combine. Mixture will be very dry. Add egg and fold until well incorporated.

Fold in cheese (it will start melting into dough). Remove dough to work surface. Dust hands lightly with more flour and knead dough lightly, just until no longer lumpy and cheese is incorporated.

Break off pieces of dough and roll lightly into balls about the size of golf balls. Place on cookie sheet. Bake 15 to 20 minutes, until just turning color. Don’t overbake or bread will harden. Don’t expect them to turn golden brown; they’ll be on the pale side. Makes 16.

Approximate nutritional analysis, per piece: 120 calories, 5 g fat, 1.5 g saturated fat, 190 mg cholesterol, 200 mg sodium, 15 g carbohydrate, no fiber, 1 g sugar, 3 g protein

Write “By Request,” Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, Honolulu 96813; or email requests to bshimabukuro@staradvertiser.com. Nutritional analysis by Joannie Dobbs, Ph.D., C.N.S.