Brazillian Cheese Bread (Pão de Queijo)

A good friend of mine (who loves Grand Prix) was unable to watch the Brazilian Grand Prix when it was raced.  We finally were able to watch it last Saturday with him.  As it was the Brazilian Grand Prix, dinner that night was food from Brazil.  One of my other friends offered to make the main course and asked me to bring some bread to go with the food.

Needless to say, on went the research cap, and behold! Pão de Queijo!  There seems to be a few variations on how to make it and some were on the sequence.  A few sites did not mention boiling the milk mixture.  Most of the variations were to account for the ability to acquire the proper cheese.  I combined a few of the more common directions and came up with what I felt was the basic, traditional method.

I used 2 cups of Cotija as the main cheese and 1/2 cup of aged cheddar.  A couple of us broke into one of them the moment it came out of the oven.  Not only was it too hot, it was extremely gooey.  I was a little disappointed.  Fortunately, the group understands that many of the things we try don't work out.

A half hour later, my wife wanders into the kitchen, sees the bread and tries one.  She then informs us how nice the bread is, as she munches away on one.  It turns out that the bread improves when its given a few moments to cool.  Before the night was over, the bread was gone.  But, before it was gone, it had acquired several new names: cheesy crack, and cheesy poofs.

The group of us got together the next night (Sunday) and I was requested to make them again (which I gladly did).  The Monday night, my wife and I went to the San Francisco Broadway production of Bring It On.  We looked for a restaurant near the theater and found a Brazilian restaurant a few blocks away.  Yes, we ordered the cheese bread so we could compare ours to theirs.  While talking to the owner about about their bread, he mentioned to me how the traditional bread is a little more airy than what he serves, but due to the process of mass production, he has difficulties doing so.  My bread is a little more airy than his, so I ended being very pleased with the results of my creations.

The following night (Tuesday) was the first Tuesday of the month.  The first Tuesday is the regular gathering of many of our friends.  I decided to make the bread one more time.  However, this time, I was going to vary it a bit . . .

I took some of the butter, browned it and then added a large amount of garlic that I crushed into a paste (with salt).  Once it started to smell, I added the rest of the butter, all the milk and oil.  From there, I replaced the Cotija cheese with parmigian regiano.  The end result had a strong garlic flavor and a noticeable parmigian.  Overall, I found it to be a tasty alternative.

http://keeprecipes.com/recipe/howtocook/brazillian-cheese-bread-p%C3%A3o-de-queijo