Pão de queijo

Pão de queijo is made with polvilho, the starch extracted from cassava, scalded with milk and fat and mixed with eggs and grated cured cheese. The little balls go into the oven and come out golden, with a crispy crust and an elastic, moist interior.

The most told history links pão de queijo to the farms of Minas Gerais in the 18th century, during the gold cycle. Wheat flour was expensive and rare in the countryside, and cooks used polvilho, which was abundant, and cheese made from production leftovers, already cured. Each farm had its own recipe, passed down from generation to generation.

For a long time it was a homemade snack, served with coffee. From the 1950s it reached bakeries and snack bars in Minas cities, and later, with frozen dough, it spread across Brazil.

In Minas there is no single recipe. A survey by Faculdade Senac in Belo Horizonte collected recipes from different regions of the state and found various methods of preparation, with different ingredients and proportions. In research with consumers, pão de queijo appeared as the food most offered to visitors.

It is eaten hot, straight from the oven, preferably with a filtered coffee.