I have been borrowing cookbooks like crazy from the library. One of my recent borrows is the cookbook, Simply Nigella by Nigella Lawson. I’ve taken to placing post-it notes at each recipe that I want to try and one of them was her recipe for Brazilian Cheese Bread. I was able to make this bread on Friday, but I haven’t had a chance to post about it until now. I do have a few bakes scheduled for today, but before I go tackle those, I wanted to post about these little puff balls of chewiness.
Here is a recipe for Brazilian Cheese Bread at Simply Recipes. I haven’t tried this particular cheese bread recipe but I probably will soon. I love anything I have made from Simply Recipes.
I can’t seem to find the actual recipe I used online anywhere. This is probably because it is from a published cookbook.
Some issues I had with the recipe from Simply Nigella:
- The batter was really, really runny. I think this might be because I didn’t bring the milk up to enough of a boil before adding it to the tapioca flour.
- I had one child who did not like the cheese bread. I think for him it was a texture thing.
- I ended up making about 90 of these breads instead of just 50 like the recipe said.
- I don’t think the breads puffed up as much as they should have.
Josh and I went on a gluten-free diet for about a month sometime last year. So I had to buy gluten-free flours. Once we were off the diet though, I was left with flours that I don’t use very much taking up space in my fridge! This is one reason I made the macarons a few weeks ago. My goal for the next month or two is to use up these flours. Who knows though; I may end up buying a few of these flours regularly!
This is the consistency of my cheese bread batter before I added the milk mixture from the stove.
This is after I added the milk. It was very, very runny!
The cheese bread on the baking sheet and in the oven.
My cheese breads all puffed up after baking. But… some of them didn’t stay that way. Some of them went flat after baking!
The texture of these was a little odd and took a bit of getting used to (very chewy!), but they were kind of addicting! In fact, I had little people (and one big son who is taller than I am) coming into the kitchen every few minutes to take one or two to snack on. I think they lasted maybe two days. They were really, really chewy the next day, but that didn’t bother my kids any. They still ate them up with lunch or as a snack. The cheese bread also toasted up decently in the toaster oven and regained its crispy exterior.
I will definitely make these again! I will try a different cheese next time and use a different recipe. I also need a recipe that doesn’t make quite so many!
-Lynn