Ed Wiebe

at the UVic Climate Lab

Pão de Queijo

Tapioca Cheeseballs

Celiac disease has lead us to explore gluten-free baking. It's certainly more difficult than wheat-based glutinous baking and that's frustrating. However, this recipe is straightforward and delicious. Thanks to our Brazilian friends Al and Eunice for suggesting it.


1/3 cup  vegetable oil
1/3 cup  milk
1/2 cup  water 

2   cups tapioca starch (manioc)
3/4 cup  grated cheese (parmesan)
2   eggs

salt if you want it.


Heat the oil, milk and water until stirring gives you a nice froth on top.
It doesn't have to boil. 

Mix this into the starch and cheese (and salt), blend well.

Add the eggs.  Mix some more.  It should be a gloopy paste that
doesn't flow but does settle if left alone.

Form into balls on a baking sheet. I've tried to make them as small
as ping-pong balls and twice that size (approximately one or two
tablespoons I think).  You can crowd them together as they don't rise
significantly. When I say form into balls, I mean spoon the slooppy mix
from the bowl onto the pan into blobs. The dough shouldn't actually be 
runny though. 

Bake them in a hot oven (375 F) for 15 minutes or so.  You should judge
them for yourself.  They should get a bit golden brown on top and
nicely toasted on the bottom.

That's it. Wait a moment for them to cool and then eat them with
homemade soup.

We recently tried some variations, adding herbs or chopped up, seasoned
arthichoke hearts. Experiment a little

pao de queijo, tapioca cheese balls pao de queijo, tapioca cheese balls

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