Quick Brazilian Cheese Bread Recipe, Featuring Physical Leavening at Its Finest

Yeast--a biological leavener--is the glory of the local artisan bakery. Baking soda and baking powder--chemical leaveners--are the workhorses of quick breads like biscuits and banana nut muffins. Although most recipes that utilize them don’t acknowledge them as such, air and steam are known as physical leaveners in the world of baking, and you don’t hear much about them.

Air and steam can lift baked goods to incredible heights when properly managed. For instance, angel food cake gets its light and fluffy texture from air that has been beaten into egg whites. Popovers, which can sometimes rise to oh-my-goodness-what’s-happening-in-my-oven levels, owe their stature to the power of steam. As water in the ingredients is heated during baking, it turns into vapor. This transformation increases its volume exponentially, and as it expands, it creates pockets of trapped steam in the batter. As baking continues, the batter firms up around these spaces, resulting in the characteristic crumb of well-made baked goods.

Brazilian Cheese Bread is one of the recipes in our Quick Breads unit. It’s a stellar example of physical leavening, and because it’s made with tapioca flour instead of wheat flour, it’s a good choice for those with gluten sensitivities. We love the traditional method of making Brazilian Cheese Bread, which involves stove-top cooking and forming the dough into balls by hand. But this blender version is so quick and so easy that it has won a place in our hearts as well. Think of it as the modern, lightweight cousin of its much cheesier and chewier predecessor (shown below). If you’ve got a few minutes and a few key ingredients, you--or better yet, your kids--can have this South American specialty in the oven in no time.

Quick Brazilian Cheese Bread

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup whole milk

• 1/3 cup olive oil

• 1 large egg

• ½ cup (packed) shredded cheddar cheese

• 1 ½ cups tapioca flour

• 1 teaspoon salt

Instructions:

1.    Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2.    Spray a 12-cup muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray.

3.    Combine all ingredients in a blender jar and blend until smooth.

4.    Pour batter evenly into the prepared tin. Bake until golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes.

5.    Cool slightly, then remove and serve warm.  

Makes 12 rolls.

Traditional Brazilian Cheese Bread