Pão de Queijo (Brazilian Cheese Bread)

Pão de queijo, an absolute sweetheart of a cheese bread from Brazil, has evolved slowly through time and space to become my current favorite iteration of cheesy carbs. That's why I chose to fit it into my $100 Christmas splurge budget eats menu—soft, slightly chewy, savory bites that transform you into a cheese ball in the best way possible.

Usually made from cassava flour, eggs, a little (okay, a lot of) dairy, pão de queijo had humble beginnings without all the richness. Born out of necessity, enslaved people during the Portuguese colonization of Brazil made bread with the byproduct residue from processing cassava, a staple root plant also known as yuca and manioc. The starchy cassava discards, also known as tapioca, were then baked into breads. At their inception, there was no butter, cream, or cheese going into these bites—it was purely sustenance.

Brazil finally abolished slavery in 1888—the last country in the West to do so. In the following years, relatively luxurious ingredients like dairy became more accessible to the formerly enslaved populations, and the modern pão de queijo emerged, branching off into variations on the theme. 

You can use tapioca starch or cassava flour, different kinds of cheeses, oil or butter; different combinations will lead to different textures. Some are puffier, some are breadier, some are airer, some are chewier—but no matter how you play it, it's cheesy bread and cheesy bread is always good.

I went with what I had on hand at the time: cassava flour, butter, cream, eggs, hard aged Gouda, a crumbly Pecorino-like Saganaki cheese, and some black truffle salt just to kick it up a notch. It was soft, plush, warm, and welcoming—everything my holiday spread needed. For best results, use a stand mixer to help you work the dough—it'll be able to build in more aeration than you can by hand.