When I worked in Brazil in my late 20's, I got to know Andrea's exchange host family, the Viannas. Well, “got to know” isn't quite correct. I fell in love with them, especially the parents, Huey and Nazaree. Nazaree taught me her family recipe for pao de quejo, or cheese bread and it is one of the tastes that can bring me right back to my time there. It's also warm, slightly gooey and perfect comfort food.

The recipe calls for polvilho, which is ground manioc flour, the base of Tapioca. It also calls for quejo mineiro, the cheese of the state I lived in, Minas Gerais. Your best bet is to find these at a Brazilian market, or ask there for substitutes. Mexican queso mini chihuahua, apparently only available in Chicago, is at good substitute.

• 1 1/2 cups Water
• 1 1/2 cups Milk
• 2/3 cups Oil
  • Bring to a boil
• 4 cups Polvilho Doce
  • Pour boiling mixture and knead, carefully!
• 1 tsp Salt
• 6 Eggs
  • Add, should be quite pasty
• 4 cups Quejo Mineiro Cheese, finely grated
  • Knead until dough sticks to everything
  • Shape into ~1“ balls using clean hands rubbed with oil onto a parchment paper-covered cookie sheet

Bake at 350 until golden brown on top. ~10 minutes?

• Freeze beautifully
• Make sure to use Dolce(sweet) rather than Azedo (sour) polvilho. As I understand it, most recipes call for Azedo, but this doesn't so I try not to mess with it.