Colombian Cheese Bread (Pan de Queso)

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Cheese bread made with masarepa and two cheeses, one fresh and one salty. Eighteen rolls, twenty-five minutes in the oven, and no yeast or rising time.

Prep Time20

Cook Time25

Total Time45

Course: Breads

Cuisine: Colombian

Keyword: cheese bread, pan de queso

Servings:

Calories: 195kcal

Author: Angela Giraldo

Ingredients

4 cups masarepa (pre-cooked corn flour) harina de maíz precocida, not cornstarch and not raw cornmeal
1 cup fresh cheese queso campesino, or queso fresco
1 cup queso costeño, or feta the salty one; feta is the substitute outside Colombia
½ cup hot milk
2 large eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder there is no yeast: this is what lifts them
1 tablespoon sugar
Salt, to taste go carefully: both cheeses are already salty

Instructions

Heat the oven to 175°C (350°F).
Mix the baking powder into the hot milk, add a tablespoon of the masarepa and the sugar, and stir until combined.
In a bowl, add the melted butter and stir well. Add the masarepa, the eggs, the salt and both cheeses. Knead with your hands until it comes together into a smooth dough.
Divide the mixture into 18 equal portions, roll each into a ball and shape them on a floured surface.
Put them on a baking tray lined with parchment or greased with butter and bake for about 25 minutes.
Serve warm, with coffee or hot chocolate.

Notes

There is no yeast in this dough and nothing to rise, so it goes straight from the bowl to the oven. The baking powder dissolved in hot milk at the start is what lifts them. Two cheeses are doing two jobs: the fresh one melts and gives the crumb its softness, the salty one gives the flavour, and using only one gives a bread that is either bland or dry. Be careful with added salt, since both cheeses bring plenty. These are best within a couple of hours of coming out of the oven, which is true of every Colombian cheese bread.

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