What snack is a Brazilian cheese bread made with tapioca flour?

Pão de queijo is a Brazilian cheese bread made with tapioca flour.

The dough commonly combines tapioca flour, cheese, milk, eggs, and oil or butter. It is shaped into small balls and baked, producing a lightly crisp outside and a chewy, elastic interior. Minas cheese is traditional in the state of Minas Gerais, although other cheeses are widely used.

Pão de queijo is eaten at breakfast, as a snack, or with coffee. Frozen versions are also common in Brazil and can be baked at home. Because tapioca flour is made from cassava, the bread is naturally gluten-free when prepared with suitable ingredients.

The name literally means “cheese bread” in Portuguese. It is not the same as coxinha, a chicken-filled fried dough snack, or pastel, a thin pastry filled and fried. Its chewy texture comes from the starch in tapioca flour rather than wheat gluten.