Pandebono - Colombian Cheese Bread

Pandebono is a delicious cheese bread, perfect for breakfast or an afternoon snack with coffee. It's a simple recipe made with cheese and two kinds of flour - tapioca flour (cassava or yuca starch) and precooked cornmeal, or masarepa. The cheesiness comes from salty farmer's cheese (queso fresco). The dough is shaped into balls or bagels, which puff up nicely in the oven even though there's no leavening ingredient. They're best when they're warm from the oven, and they reheat very well in the oven.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 cup yellow masarepa (precooked cornmeal)
• 1/2 cup tapioca (cassava, yuca) flour
• 2 cups grated farmer's cheese, or queso fresco
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• salt to taste

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
   
   
2. Mix the two flours and the sugar in a bowl.
   
   
3. Stir in the grated cheese and the eggs. Mix well with a wooden spoon. Taste for salt, and add salt as needed. (Some farmer's cheeses are saltier than others).
   
   
4. Knead dough until smooth. If the dough seems too dry, add a few teaspoons of water.
   
   
5. Roll dough into balls that are slightly larger than golf balls. Or shape dough into small bagels. The rolls do not have to be perfectly smooth - they will puff up in the last several minutes of baking.
   
   
6. Place rolls on a greased cookie sheet and bake, about 20 minutes or until golden in color and puffed.
   
   
7. Serve warm.

Makes 15 small rolls

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