Most Brazilian Cheese Bread recipes won’t recommend doing anything to your baking tray before placing spoonfuls of your bread batter on it, however, the water beads add moisture which helps them rise during baking which can’t be obtained in the same way without adding water to your tray. In fact, you might notice one or two of the buns with a slight deflation in the center that came about due to the lack of moisture in the oven at time of baking.