Party Food - Brazilian Cheese Bread

I've been obsessing over these for over a year a year and half. I should have shared the recipe the instant they popped out of the oven, all thin toasted, crispy crust around a soft chewy, cheesy puff, hot enough to make my roommate juggle one in eager anticipation.

Last year on my boyfriend's birthday, I gathered our friends, many bottles, a magic custard cake from White on Rice Couple and a batch of these beautiful breads. True to form for a karate party, drinks were mixed and shots taken, but these stood out amongst the fuzzy memories. They are fully worth the labor, enough so that a staunchly non-cooking friend asked me for the recipe. Since then, they've been to a Christmas party, a birthday party (as the birthday cake request...!) and a baby shower.

Tomorrow, they're going to the beach! To those in the U.S., Happy Independence Day! Let's eat a lot, terrify our pets with bright lights and loud bangs and generally cause a ruckus :D

To those in every other country in the world... Happy Monday...?

Like those bottles hanging out on the top shelf of my pantry, these are always welcome to the party.

Brazilian Cheese Bread
Adapted from The Kitchn

Ingredients
2 cups tapioca flour (I use plain, not fermented, which is just fine)
1 cup whole milk (yes, you can use skim, evaporated + water, etc. Forgiving recipe!)
1/2 cup vegetable oil (I like olive)
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup shredded Parmesan/mozzarella/cheddar cheese

Directions

1. Set aside the tapioca flour in a bowl.

2. Boil the milk, oil and salt. They will bubble up alarmingly fast, so have the tapioca flour ready to go!

3. Dump in the tapioca flour and stir quickly, forming a gelatinous dough. Turn off the fire, but keep stirring until all the tapioca flour has been incorporated. I recommend a wooden cooking utensil, such as a spoon. My personal favorite is a wooden paddle with square edges, so I can scrape the inside edges of the pot.

4. Stir vigorously (I prefer a mixer at this point...) until cool. Add the eggs and keep stirring until the dough is light yellow and reasonably homogenous.

5. Add the shredded cheese and stir until all the cheese is evenly mixed in.

6. Using a scoop, spoons or your hands (dip your hands in water to reduce sticking), form balls of dough around 2 tablespoons in volume. At this point, you have a few choices.

7.A. Preheat the oven to 350F and arrange the breads on top of parchment paper on baking sheets, a couple of inches apart. Bake for 25-30 minutes, then party!!!

7.B. Alternatively, arrange the breads on top of parchment paper on baking sheets and freeze, saving them to bake later. This is also a good method of portion control...

Either way, now or later, enjoy! These are best warm, since they lose their unusual chew when they cool, resembling more typical cheese buns made with wheat flour. They do make fantastic sandwiches, though, hot or cold.

Quick Indulgences - Macaroni and Cheese

Did you know it is possible to have macaroni and cheese in under 20 minutes?  Made from scratch?  This is very important to a college student who has just come home at 4:00pm, having eaten a total of a small roll, an apple muffin and half a lemon bar since 8:30am that day.  I found the recipe at the delightful blog White on Rice Couple, and kept it as an active tab for the two weeks it took me to find spare time and buy groceries.  Diane writes about the speed and simplicity of her macaroni and cheese, and the techniques she used to develop her recipe.  I followed hers...mostly.  

You see, I have a portion control problem, where, essentially, I have none whatsoever.  I cut the recipe in half (devouring the entire batch, of course), and it cooked in about half the time that Diane lists.  The rate of energy transfer (temperature rise) is directly proportional to mass, yes?  I also removed most of the mustard (not fond of it), used whole milk instead of low fat (I only have the refrigerator space for one half-gallon of milk at a time...), skipped the butter (well, she said you didn't need it...) skipped the black pepper and (here's why) used only about 1/4 cup of a nice, spicy, pepper jack cheese.  Still, thick, rich, creamy, flavorful, all those lovely adjectives that typically describe a good macaroni and cheese.  Also, I used a brown rice fusilli (gluten-free!), because my friend graduated, moved out of the apartment and kindly left me a 6-month supply* of rice.  Fusilli and cheese?

Simple Macaroni and Cheese from White on Rice Couple
Makes enough to serve one
  
Ingredients
1 cup dry macaroni/pasta pieces
1 cup whole, low-fat or skim milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
Pinch nutmeg (optional)
Pinch ground dry mustard (optional)
1 oz. or 1/4 cup shredded cheese 
Black pepper to taste (optional)

Directions
  
1. Pour the milk and macaroni/pasta into a pot (mine is about 3 quarts or so and has survived my shenanigans since freshman year).  Turn on the fire to medium and add the salt, nutmeg and mustard, if using.  Stir, and keep gently stirring while the milk comes to a simmer.  Don't let the milk boil over!  You might need to add more milk or water if the milk evaporates too quickly, before the macaroni/pasta has cooked.

2. Once the macaroni/pasta is cooked and the milk has been reduced to a pleasant, creamy sauce, add the cheese.  Stir the cheese into the sauce, then cover the pot, turn off the fire, and let it sit for a few minutes.  This lets the cheese melt completely (if you just cut chunks off a block of cheese, like I do, because you buy cheese in the cheapest form and still don't own any sort of grater...), the macaroni/pasta absorb the last bits of water from the sauce, and you to get more hungry while smelling the delicious cheese melting on the stove.

3. Serve immediately, and enjoy!

* Does wondering whether I have too much rice automatically kick me off the Asian island?  To my credit, I graduate in two months, too, and still don't know where I'll be living this summer.  I'll be working as a research intern at Brookhaven National Lab, but haven't been given any information about where I'll stay.  What if they don't allow rice cookers where I'll be living?!

Postscript: I love daylight savings time!  I don't get enough sleep to resent losing just an hour, and the extra daylight time is completely worth it to me.  It means that I was able to make and eat this macaroni and cheese dish, write this post, and still see the light outside.  Sunlight, well, the light that manages to filter through the current clouds, makes me so happy!

Better Than Drugs - Cheese Straws

Never allow me to buy cheese crackers again.  These were so simple, so easy to work with, so quick to form and bake and so darned delicious that I cannot imagine simply purchasing cheese crackers again.  Hydrogenated oil, too much salt, a sour taste that makes me wonder if the crackers went bad?  No thanks.  I'd rather these instead, a light, crispy, buttery, cheese-speckled, mildly garlicky and thoroughly addictive snack.  Only five ingredients, and the dough came together in a moment.  I didn’t have a rolling pin, and that didn’t matter.  I just patted it into rectangles, cut and baked, and out came these dreamy little treats.  

Unbaked, they were amazingly easy to handle.  Afterwards, they were sturdy; not a single one broke in transit.

Deb of Smitten Kitchen published the recipe back in 2009, and I only realized the day I wanted to make them that they required a food processor.  Luckily they turned out just fine using my little knife to chop the cheddar shreds extra fine and my hands to form the dough.  I decided on adding garlic at the last moment.  I wasn’t sure that black pepper was the best choice for cheddar, and I had no red pepper flakes.  I also wanted a flavor that was distinctive and complemented the cheddar, but without overwhelming it.  I’m pleased to announce that it was a good decision.

Cheese Straws adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Makes about 40 short straws (About 4 inches long)

Ingredients

1½ cups shredded cheese*

3 cloves garlic, peeled

4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter, softened**

¾ cup all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon salt

Equipment

Sharp knife and cutting board

1 medium bowl

¼ teaspoon measure

¼ cup dry measure

½ cup dry measure

Flour to dust work surface

Cookie sheets and parchment paper to line (I used 1, and baked in two batches)

Directions

1. Finely chop the shredded cheese and finely mince the garlic cloves.  Toss the cheese and garlic into the medium bowl.

2. Preheat the oven to 350°F.  Line a cookie sheet (or 2) with parchment paper.

3. Add the butter, flour and salt to the cheese and garlic.  Using your fingers, rub the whole delightful mess together until it forms a dough. 

4. Dusting the cutting board or a nice, clean, flat surface with a little flour, roll or pat the dough into a rectangle (I had a small surface, so I worked in batches).  Using a sharp knife, cut the rectangle into strips and gently lay on the cookie sheet.  If the strips break, they can be patched together without harm.   

5. Bake the cheese straws at 350°F for about 12-15 minutes, until lightly toasted.  Cool them completely, and try not to eat them all right away.  Enjoy!

I can just imagine munching these during finals week; they're little crunches of happiness.  Food for thought :)

Notes:

*Deb originally called for extra-sharp cheddar.  I had some mild cheddar that I’m convinced was made by mistake, it was so bland, and used a mixture of half mild and half sharp cheddar.  I’m betting pepper jack would be amazing.

**I used salted.  It worked just fine as I reduced the salt to ¼ teaspoon.