Pão de queijo (Brazilian Cheese Bun)

Ate this once in the Brazilian restaurant at Bukit Timah and fell in love with it instantly! So I decided to try my hand on making them myself.

The method to make this is similar to making choux pastry but the end result is totally different.

Main ingredients:
Tapioca flour
milk
water
oil
salt
Cheese (I used grated parmesan cheese)

1. Boil the milk, water, oil and salt in a pan. Remove from heat. Immediately add in all the tapioca flour to the boiling liquid and stir with a wooden spoon until the liquid is incorporated into the flour. Let the dough cool down.

2. Put the dough in a mixer and add in the egg. Mix well with a dough hook.

3. Add in the parmesan cheese and knead till the dough is smooth (took me about 10 min on my SPAR mixer. Imagine the HORROR if I have to knead by hand -_-'')

Clockwise from top left: Boiling liquid mixture; how the dough looks like after mixing in the flour; egg added; parmesan cheese added.

How the dough looks like after kneading for 10 minutes:

4. Roll the dough into a ball, cover it up and let it rest for a while so that it will be easier to work with.
5. Divide the dough into bite-sized balls. Bake the balls in an oven preheated at 170-175°C for about 20min or till golden brown.

The texture of the interior:

Yummy cheesy balls!

Note: The texture of the buns totally changed the next day -> became harder. Will experiment changing the amount of milk, flour, oil or eggs to see if it will help to prolong the chewy texture.