Pan de yuca is also known as chipas in Argentina, pan de queso in Colombia, and pao de queijo in Brazil, it is made with yuca starch, cheese, butter and eggs. Yuca bread makes a delicious warm appetizer and the breads can be made in advance and baked minutes before serving. Leftover breads will get hard when they get cold, but can be reheated in the microwave (great for breakfast the day after). The flour is made from yuca root, and is also known as cassava or tapioca starch, the flour can be found in specialty stores. In Ecuador, pan de yuca is usually served with yogurt smoothies and there are several restaurants whose specialty is yuca bread with yogurt. I usually serve yuca bread as an appetizer, with tree tomato aji, but they are also great for breakfast or with an afternoon coffee or tea. My kids love yuca bread and I always let them have some dough so they can make their own shapes: ovals, triangles, spirals, etc. They get very excited as they watch the oven and wait for their bread to be ready.
I used to make yuca bread by hand, and it is probably one of the easiest breads to make by hand, the ingredients are easy to mix, but it is a little bit sticky, so I tried using the food processor instead and it works great. If you don’t have a food processor or prefer to make it by hand, just melt the butter to make it easier to mix the ingredients.
Ingredients:
2 ½ cups yuca starch (sometimes also called yuca flour) or tapioca starch
4 cups grated mozzarella cheese
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 stick of butter, room temperature, cut into 8 pieces
2 large eggs
Optional 1-2 tbs water, if needed
Preparation:
- Combine the yuca starch or flour, cheese, baking powder and salt in a food processor, blend to mix well.
- Add the butter and eggs
- Mix until small dough balls begin to form, if it’s too dry add 1-2 tbs of water
- Remove the dough from the food processor and roll into a ball, you can make the dough ahead and store in the refrigerator for up to a day.
- Pre-heat the oven to 500 F .
- Make small round shaped breads with the dough and place on a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Bake immediately or store in the fridge until ready to bake.
- Bake for about 7 minutes and turn on broiler until the breads are golden, about 3-5 minutes.
- Serve immediately, can be served alone or with tree tomato aji.
Laylita, I know this is a kind of old post. But I just joined pinterest, and decided to look around your website for more recipes from you that I might like and I stumbled upon this one! I used to eat Pan de Yuca from Gustapan in Quito and I miss it terribly. But now I live in Montana and am so far away from a good Mexican or South American market. Could I get Yuca flour here by the name of Tapioca flour? Or would that be too different?
Thanks!
-Katrina-
Hi Katrina – You should be able to find it as tapioca starch.
I love your recipe, this is what we use when we make the yummy pao de queijo because it’s so simple!
Thank you!!
Hello Laylita,
Glad I found your website, esp. this recipe for pan de yuca. Just wondering, I remember my family making the pan de yuca with cream cheese, do you konw this alternate recipe using cream cheese?
Thanks, Carla
Hi Carla – I haven’t ever made them using cream cheese, I’ll ask around and see if anyone knows how to make them that way.
Now Yucca flour is tapioca flour or tapioca starch and you can find it in almost any store. Good luck! It’s delicious.
So are these inedible if served cold? I was thinking about making them for a project in my college Spanish class, but I don’t know if I’d be able to reheat them in time. What if I reheated them 3 or 4 hours ahead of time, would they still be warm enough, or would that be too long?
Hi Lizzie, they would still be edible, but just won’t taste as good. If you make them ahead of time, I would recommend microwaving the yuca breads right before serving them – it’s as close as you can get to serving them warm out of the oven.
This is the little roll they serve at brazilian restaurants like Tucano’s or Rodizio Grill, right? Cheesy in the middle?