Peta de Polvilho

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Large heatproof mixing bowl
• •Small saucepan
• •Wooden spoon or stand mixer with paddle
• •Two large baking sheets
• •Parchment paper
• •1/3-cup measuring cup or two large spoons

Instructions

1. 1

   Heat the oven

   Heat the oven to 220°C (425°F). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set the racks in the upper and lower thirds. Give the petas room from the start, because this dough puffs wide and tall before it dries. A crowded tray gives you biscuits stuck together at the shoulders, and nobody asked for one giant accident.

2. 2

   Scald the starch

   Put the polvilho azedo in a large heatproof bowl. In a small saucepan, bring the 1 cup water, oil, and salt to a full boil, with the surface bubbling and the salt dissolved. Pour it over the polvilho all at once and stir hard with a wooden spoon until the mixture turns into damp, crumbly clumps. This hot liquid wakes up the starch and takes away the raw chalkiness. Cold liquid won't do the same job.

   Use polvilho azedo, not polvilho doce. The sour starch gives the biscuit its lift and dry crisp shell. The sweet one makes a gentler, denser biscuit, and then you'll blame your hands instead of the bag.
3. 3

   Let it cool

   Spread the hot clumps around the bowl and let them cool for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring once or twice. Touch the dough with a fingertip. It should feel warm, not hot. Add eggs to a hot dough and they cook into little bits before they can help the peta rise, which is a very annoying lesson and entirely avoidable.

4. 4

   Beat in eggs

   Add the eggs one at a time, stirring hard after each one. The dough will look broken, then sticky, then glossy and stretchy. Keep going until it holds a spoon mark for one second and then slowly closes over itself. If it stays stiff and tears instead of stretching, add room-temperature water 1 tablespoon at a time. The dough needs enough moisture to puff, but not so much that it spreads flat.

   A stand mixer with the paddle is an honest shortcut here. It saves your arm and costs you one extra bowl to wash. What I won't hand you is a boxed mix with fake flavor when polvilho, eggs, oil, and salt already know what they're doing.
5. 5

   Shape big domes

   Oil a 1/3-cup measuring cup or two large spoons. Scoop eight big mounds onto the prepared sheets, leaving at least 8 cm between them. Smooth any sharp peaks with an oiled fingertip so they don't brown too fast. The mounds should look too tall and too sticky. That's correct. This is paste, not bread dough, and a gente is not here to force it into behaving like wheat.

6. 6

   Bake and dry

   Bake at 220°C (425°F) for 12 minutes without opening the oven. When the petas are puffed, round, and just beginning to color, lower the oven to 190°C (375°F) and bake 15 to 18 minutes more, until pale golden, firm, and light for their size. The hot start makes the moisture inside expand before the shell sets. The lower heat dries the biscuit so the middle stays hollow instead of gummy.

   Do not open the oven in the first 12 minutes. Polvilho dough needs that first push of heat. Open early and the big proud domes can slump before their shells are strong enough to hold.
7. 7

   Cool and serve

   Move the petas to a rack and let them cool for 10 minutes. Break one open if you're unsure: it should be mostly hollow inside, with a dry, thin shell and a crisp bite. Serve with coffee. If one disappears while you're checking the texture, that is not a mistake. That's the cook's tax.

Chef Tips

• •Check the label: it should say polvilho azedo or sour cassava starch, and not much else. Polvilho is a real ingredient made from mandioca. You don't need a flavored mix doing theater in the pantry.
• •The dough tells you what it needs. Glossy, sticky, and slow to fall from the spoon means good. Dry and cracked means it needs a spoonful of water. Loose and puddling means the next batch gets less water, because this one will spread.
• •Bake them big. Tiny spoonfuls make biscoito de polvilho, not peta. The pleasure here is the absurd size, the thin shell, and the hollow middle you can tap with your finger.
• •Petas are best the day they're baked. To bring back the crispness, warm them at 180°C (350°F) for 5 to 7 minutes. They won't be quite the first-hour miracle, but they'll behave.
• •If your oven runs cold, they may puff and stay pale. Give them a few more minutes at the lower temperature. Color matters less than dryness. A good peta feels light when you lift it.

Advance Preparation

• •Measure the polvilho, oil, water, and salt before you start. Once the liquid boils, the scalding step moves quickly.
• •The dough can sit covered at room temperature for up to 30 minutes before shaping. Don't refrigerate it overnight, because cold, tight dough puffs less evenly.
• •Baked petas can be made up to 6 hours ahead for a coffee table. Cool completely before storing loosely covered, then recrisp at 180°C (350°F) for 5 to 7 minutes before serving.
• •For longer storage, freeze baked and cooled petas for up to 1 month. Reheat straight from frozen at 180°C (350°F) until dry and crisp again, about 10 minutes.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 85g)