Pão De Queijo (Brazilian Cheese Bread)

Ingredients
2 cups manioc starch (I used Tapioca Starch)
1 cup milk
1/2 cup margarine (I prefer butter)
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups grated parmesan cheese (mix of cheese)
2 eggs

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Bring the milk, salt, and margarine to a boil.
3. Remove from heat.
4. Slowly add manioc starch, stirring constantly until thoroughly mixed.
5. Add the cheese and eggs.
6. Knead until smooth.
7. Form into balls approximately 2-inches in diameter and place on a greased baking sheet.
8. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
9. Bake until golden brown.
10.Eat while hot.
Makes 20 cheese puffs.

My latest cooking project has been trying to recreate the Cheese Bread from my mission in Brazil. I dug around online and found a bunch of recipes and they all seemed about the same. The one above worked out well; unfortunately I don’t have the reference to it. They all call for the use of Manioc Flour. I wasn’t sure I could find anything like that, so I searched and discovered that you can use tapioca starch as a substitute.

First attempt:
I didn’t have Minidoka flour or Tapioca starch so I was going to try corn starch, but I didn’t have enough, so I tried part corn starch and part flour. It really didn’t work out. They were hard, dry, and bland.

Second attempt:
I found some Tapioca Starch at the International Market up the street and I bought a couple boxes so I won’t run out. I followed the recipe as it is, except I did ½ cup of parmesan cheese and 1 cup of cheddar cheese. They turned out well. The picture above is when they came out of the oven.

Future attempts:
I am going to try and reduce the amount of butter; I think I could take out at least half. I think more parmesan would be better too.