Pastel de Queijo

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy 4-liter pot for frying
• •Rolling pin or pasta roller
• •Thermometer for oil, optional but helpful
• •Tongs or spider strainer
• •Cooling rack or paper towels

Instructions

1. 1

   Make the dough

   Put the flour and salt in a bowl and mix with your hand. Add the oil, cachaça or vinegar, and 1 cup warm water. Stir until shaggy, then knead on the counter for 6 to 8 minutes, until the dough goes smooth and no longer cracks at the edges. The warm water relaxes the flour, and the cachaça or vinegar helps the dough fry with those little blisters instead of turning heavy.

2. 2

   Rest the dough

   Wrap the dough or cover it with an upside-down bowl and let it rest for 20 minutes. Don't skip this because you're in a hurry and feeling powerful. Rested dough rolls thin without snapping back, and thin dough is the difference between pastel and a fried shoe.

3. 3

   Prepare the cheese

   Mix the grated cheeses and oregano, if using, in a bowl. Keep the filling dry and cold while the dough rests. Wet cheese or watery add-ins soften the dough from the inside, and then the pastel opens in the oil and gives your dinner to the pan.

4. 4

   Roll it thin

   Cut the dough in half and keep one half covered. Roll the other half on a lightly floured counter until very thin, about 1/16 inch, thin enough that you can almost see the counter color through it. Dust lightly, not wildly. Too much flour burns in the oil and makes the pastel taste dusty.

5. 5

   Fill and seal

   Cut the dough into rectangles about 5 by 4 inches. Put 2 tablespoons cheese on one side of each rectangle, leaving a clean border. Fold the dough over, press around the filling to push out trapped air, then seal the edges firmly with a fork. Air expands in hot oil, so if you leave a bubble inside, it will try to burst its way out. Rude, but predictable.

   Do not overfill. More cheese sounds generous until it leaks, burns, and leaves you with an empty pastel shell. Two tablespoons is enough.
6. 6

   Heat the oil

   Pour the frying oil into a heavy pot and heat to 180°C or 350°F. If you don't have a thermometer, drop in a tiny scrap of dough: it should bubble right away and rise to the top, not sink sadly and not darken in seconds. Oil that is too cool makes greasy pastel. Oil that is too hot browns the outside before the cheese melts.

7. 7

   Fry in batches

   Fry 2 pastéis at a time, turning once, until puffed, blistered, and golden, about 1 to 2 minutes per side. Give them space. Crowd the pot and the oil temperature drops, the dough soaks fat, and everybody gets heavy and sulky, including the cook.

8. 8

   Drain and eat

   Lift the pastéis with tongs or a spider and drain on a rack or paper towels. Wait 2 minutes before biting, because melted cheese is not your friend when it is furious. Eat while the crust is still crisp and the cheese is soft inside.

Chef Tips

• •The honest shortcut is store-bought pastel dough from a Brazilian market. It saves time and fries well. The cost is that you don't learn the dough, and some brands are saltier or tougher than homemade. Still real enough for a Tuesday.
• •Use low-moisture cheese. Fresh mozzarella sounds lovely and behaves badly here because it brings water, and water inside hot oil is drama nobody needs.
• •Refuse the powdered shortcut. Cheese-flavored dust is not filling, it's a factory whispering that you can't cook. You can. Grate the cheese.
• •Seal one pastel and fry it as a test before filling the whole batch. If it opens, press the next ones harder and use less filling. Recipes that work leave room for correction.
• •Leftover fried pastel is never as good, but it can be reheated in a hot oven or air fryer until crisp again. The microwave turns it soft. Don't do that to yourself.

Advance Preparation

• •The dough can rest, wrapped, in the fridge for up to 24 hours. Let it sit at room temperature for 20 minutes before rolling so it doesn't fight you.
• •The cheese filling can be grated and mixed up to 2 days ahead, kept covered in the fridge.
• •Assembled raw pastéis can be kept in one layer, covered, for 2 hours before frying. Dust lightly with flour and don't stack them, or they stick and tear.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 80g)