Gluten-Free Tapioca Cheese Bread (Brazilian-Style Pão de Queijo)

Brazil solved gluten-free cheese bread about four hundred years before it was a trend. Pão de queijo — little golden balls, crisp outside, stretchy and cheesy within — is built on tapioca starch, not wheat, which makes it one of the great naturally-gluten-free foods of the world. If you have only ever had the dense rolls from the freezer aisle, this is a revelation: warm, chewy, savoury and genuinely fun to eat.

Gluten-Free Tapioca Cheese Bread (Brazilian-Style Pão de Queijo)

Brazil's naturally gluten-free cheese bread — crisp outside, chewy and cheesy within, built on tapioca starch instead of wheat. No proving, no blend, no gums. Contains egg and dairy.

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Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 17 minutes mins

Total Time 35 minutes mins

Servings: 14 balls

Course: Appetizer, Bread, Snack

Cuisine: Brazilian

Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients

  

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• 250 g tapioca starch
• 100 ml milk
• 50 ml olive oil
• 1 egg
• 80 g grated parmesan a generous handful — see notes
• 0.5 tsp salt

Method

 

1. Make the paste: Heat the milk and olive oil, then pour over the tapioca starch — it forms a sticky paste. This scalds the starch and gives the chewy texture.
2. Add egg & cheese: Add the egg and grated parmesan, then knead into a smooth dough. Roll into balls.
3. Bake: Bake at 200°C for 15–18 minutes, until puffed and golden. Best eaten warm. Raw balls freeze well — bake straight from frozen.

Notes

Coeliac notes
• Naturally gluten-free by design — tapioca starch plus cheese, no flour anywhere. This is why pão de queijo is such a safe order in Brazilian bakeries (still confirm the kitchen does not dust trays with wheat flour).
• Cheese: parmesan and hard cheeses are naturally GF — but grate your own, as some pre-grated cheeses use a wheat-derived anti-caking starch.
• Tapioca starch is naturally GF; buy plain (certified/labelled GF if you react to traces).
• Allergens: contains egg and dairy.
• When a label is unclear, treat it as "not for me".

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