ColombiaBreadSnackVegetarianGluten-free

Pandebono

Name: Pandebono
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: Colombia
Ingredients: 1.5 cups cassava starch, almidón de yuca; tapioca starch works; 0.5 cup white masarepa, precooked corn meal; 300 g queso costeño and quesito, grated, or half feta, half low-moisture mozzarella; 1 egg, large; 1 tbsp sugar; 0.5 tsp baking powder; 2 tbsp milk, only if the dough is dry

Colombia’s cheese bread: chewy, salty-sweet rolls of cassava starch and cheese, naturally gluten-free. From oven to gone in ten minutes.

prep: 15 min
cook: 15 min
total: 30 min
serves: 6
level: easy

Pandebono is Valle del Cauca’s gift to the afternoon coffee break: small cheese breads with a thin crust and a chewy, stretchy middle, traditionally shaped into rolls or rings.

There is no wheat in them at all. Cassava starch plus a little corn meal is the structure, cheese is most of everything else, which means they are naturally gluten-free and always were, long before that was a selling point.

Pandebono is number 18 on our list of the top 20 famous Colombian foods.

method

Heat the oven to 220°C (425°F) and line a baking sheet.
Blend or knead the starch, masarepa, cheese, egg, sugar and baking powder into a soft, slightly tacky dough. Add the milk a spoonful at a time only if it will not come together.
Roll into 12 balls, or into ropes pinched into small rings if you want the classic shape.
Bake for 12 to 15 minutes until puffed and golden.
Eat warm. This is not optional; pandebono goes stale faster than it took to bake.

chef's tips

Half feta, half mozzarella is the closest substitute abroad: feta for the salt of costeño, mozzarella for the stretch of quesito.
Too sticky to shape means wet hands, not more starch. Too crumbly means a spoon of milk.
They revive well: three minutes in a hot oven the next morning and they are nearly new.