Aspirational breadsticks

Before I get in trouble with the cultural appropriation police, my cheesy breadsticks pictured above are just inspired by the Brazilian snack called "pão de queijo". (No, I do not know how to pronounce any of those words). I make them using this storebought mix called Chebe.

Like a brownie mix that gets jazzed up with great butter and more chocolate, the key to excellence here is in the quality of ingredients that are NOT included in the mix.

The mix is mainly tapioca flour and tapioca starch and dried milk powder, salt. It’s your job to add shredded cheese, two eggs and a couple tablespoons of good olive oil and water to get it to the right consistency. I have tried hand grating parmesan and pecorino and even white cheddar but for me the texture is the best when using pregrated Parmesan cheese. I’m not sure what would be the traditional cheese for these in Brazil?

My limited understanding is that normally Brazilian cheese bread is shaped into round balls about an inch in diameter and after baking they are quite chewy and stretchy.

I guess I prefer the texture of crunchy things to chewy things, so I like to smash the dough between two non-stick silpats and then roll it out using an empty claret style straight sided wine bottle because I don’t have a rolling pin. The dough is super sticky I cannot emphasize this enough so if you’re going to handle it, silpats are the way to go.

Then I cut the dough into long strips and carefully transfer them to a baking sheet lined with parchment. I like to get cute about little helical twists that remind me of the cheese sticks from Maddock’s bakery in Soquel I grew up with back before we knew I had celiac disease.

As they are baking they will smell up your whole house with one of the most delicious smells in the world, toasted Parmesan cheese smell. When they come out of the oven and have cooled for a couple minutes, they are best enjoyed with a cold glass of champagne or a crisp white wine or the red wine you have open on the counter from the weekend. In terms of the wine pairing, think of them as kinda like a gougère if gougères were crispy and gluten free and made with that shredded parmesan cheese I buy at Costco. Cheers!

https://www.chebe.com/collections/dry-mixes/products/original-cheese-bread-mix-8-pack-case-7-5-oz-per-package