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Pan de yuca or cassava cheese bread

Pan de yuca or cheese breads

Ecuadorian pan de yuca are small cheesy breads made with yuca flour (cassava/tapioca starch) and cheese. There are variations of these delicious breads in many Latin countries. They are known as chipas in Paraguay/Argentina, pan de queso in Colombia, cuñape in Bolivia, and pao de queijo in Brazil. The variations and exact ingredients vary from one place to another, my recipe for pan de yuca 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 most supermarkets, in Latin grocery stores, or online. 

Video Recipe

Receta en español

Pan de yuca or cheese bread

Pan de yuca, also known as cheese bread or yuca bread, are yummy melt in your mouth warm breads made with cheese and yuca or cassava starch
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Course: Appetizer, Bread, Brunch, Snack
Cuisine: Ecuadorian, Latin, South American
Keyword: Cassava cheese bread, Pan de yuca, Yuca bread
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 25 minutes
Servings: 20 -25 small yuca breads

Ingredients

  • 2 ½ cups yuca or cassava starch - sometimes also called yuca flour or tapioca starch/flour
  • 4 cups grated mozzarella cheese can also use half mozzarella & half queso fresco or quesillo
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1 stick of butter 4 oz or 113 grams, room temperature, cut into 8 pieces
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2-4 tablespoons of water or milk, add more if the dough is dry

Instructions

  • 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 tablespoons of water or milk. Add more if needed.
  • 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.
  • To make the dough by hand, combine all the ingredients in large bowl, using melted (cooled down) butter, and mix until you have a smooth dough. It's actually very easy to prepare by hand.
  • 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. I find that they turn out best if you do let them chill in the fridge for about 30 minutes before baking.
  • Once the oven reaches 500F, turn on broiler, place the breads on the middle rack and bake until the breads are golden, about 5-7 minutes. Another option is to pre-heat the oven to 400F and bake at 400F for about 5 minutes and then turn on the broiler.
  • Serve immediately, can be served alone or with tree tomato aji.

Notes

See variations below for more helpful tips & ideas.

Pan de yuca or yuca bread recipe

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.

Yuca cheese breads

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.

Notes, tips, ideas & variations for making yuca cheese breads:

I’ve been making these delicious cheesy breads for so long, and in different places when we travel. I am constantly finding that the yuca bread dough is so flexible and can be used in many different ways. Here’s a quick compilation of some of the variations, tips, and ideas that I’ve tried over the years:

Ecuadorian yuca starch bread

– The texture of the yuca breads will vary based on the type of the cheese you use, this recipe uses mozzarella (not fresh, but the grated harder type) and I sometimes mix it with queso fresco. This results in very soft and smooth tasting breads which my family loves. For a cheese bread with a crunchier texture and stronger cheese flavor, you can use a harder more aged cheese: parmesan, gruyere, emmental, etc. When we visit my in-laws in France I usually take the tapioca flour from the US and use local cheese (usually the grated emmental they sell at most grocery stores there). When making these with dryer aged cheese you will need to add more liquid (water or milk) to the dough to get it to the right consistency.

Cassava yuca breads made with emmental cheese in France

– If you want the yuca breads to have a perfect uniform shape or if they tend to fall flat after baking (this tends to happen more if they didn’t have time in the fridge before or if the oven isn’t pre-heated/very hot when baking them) – you can use a small muffin tin to keep them in place.

Bake the yuca bread in a muffin tin for rounder breads

– To freeze the unbaked yuca bread rolls, place them on a baking sheet with wax paper, place in the freezer. As soon as the breads are frozen, transfer them to a Ziploc bag and save in the freezer until needed. To bake them from frozen, pre-heat the oven to 400-425F, place the frozen yuca breads on a baking sheet lined with parchment, and bake until golden on top.

Frozen yuca breads

Grilled yuca cheese breads: You can also grill the yuca breads, this works best on a pizza stone. Make sure your grill is very hot and the pizza stone is pre-heated, then place the breads on the stone and let them cook until golden. They tend to have a crunchier outer texture when grilled.

Grilled yuca or cassava cheese bread

Yuca cheese griddle tortillas: You can also flatten them into thick tortilla shapes and cook them in a grill or in a stovetop pan.

Yuca cheese griddle tortillas

Yuca bread waffles: Another idea is to cook them in a waffle maker. Simply form the dough into a thicker patty (slightly smaller than your waffle maker), and place it in the waffle maker, cook until crispy on both sides.

Yuca bread waffles

Yuca bread pizzas: You can flatten the dough as thin as you would like, add a light layer of sauce (tomato, pesto, etc), your favorite toppings, and bake at 450F until crispy.

Yuca cheese bread pizza

Stuffed yuca cheese breads: Make the breads as usual, but put a piece of guava paste in the middle of each one, seal, and bake for a sweet & savory variation. Other filling ideas include cooked chorizo, cooked bacon, a piece of a different type of cheese, etc.

Yuca breads stuffed with guava paste

Yuca bread empanadas: Use the yuca bread dough to make gluten free empanada discs, just be warned that the dough is very fragile, fill it with you favorite savory or sweet filling, and bake or fry.

Yuca bread empanada dough

Fun holiday shaped yuca bread treats: For holidays you can use cookie cutters to cut the dough into different shapes and decorate them with olives, pimento peppers, etc. For Halloween, I used a ghost cookie cutter to make these cute little yuca cheese ghosts with pimento pepper eyes.

Yuca cheese bread ghosts for Halloween

Photos of yuca bread or pan de yuca preparation:

Yuca flour or tapioca starch

Ingredients for yuca cheese breads

Yuca bread preparation

Pan de yuca Pan de yuca

Pan de yuca recipe Pan de yuca or cheese bread

Pan de yuca or pan de queso

You can freeze the yuca bread rolls and bake as needed

Pan de yuca or cheese bread recipe

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119 Comments

  1. In Bolivia we call these Cuñapes and I make them with Oaxaca cheese and a mixture of Queso Fresco which I buy from Walmart.

  2. We tried making these this weekend and they were fabulous! Tasted exactly how I remember the ones at the Brazilian restaurants tasted. We had actually made some chicken liver pate the same night so split these little rolls and added some pate, it was heavenly. Cold ones can be reheated for about 10-20 seconds in the microwave and they’ll taste just like they were out of the oven.

    Thanks for the fantastically easy recipe!

  3. Just made your pan de yuca recipe and WOW! I’m having a hard time not eating them all!

    Using the food processor was a leap of faith for me — I have never used it for a dough. Used the dough blade and had to open the processor repeatedly to stir the dry ingredients into the wet. Then I turned the dough out on a counter dusted with the yuca flour and found it very easy to work with. My little “panes” are golden nuggets of delight.

    To my surprise, the bag of yuca flour (Goya Tapioca Starch/Yuca Harina/Polvilho Doce) has a recipe for pan de yuca on the back. The balance of ingredients is wildly different from yours, but I’m sticking with your recipe!

  4. Hi Laylita. I’m so glad I found this recipe. I’ve had a craving for these and your recipe looks easiest to follow from others I’ve read. Just a question…do I need to wait for the dough to rise?? On other recipes it said to use self-rising flour. Is it necessary? Also, my oven doesn’t go up to 500, so how long would I need to bake it at 400?? I’m not much of a cook, so I don’t know how to adjust baking time. Any help from anyone is appreciated. Thanks

    Hi Stephanie – No need to use self-rising flour, sometimes I even forget to add the baking powder and they come out just fine. For the oven, do you have a broil option? If so, bake them at 400 for about 10-12 minutes and then turn on the broil for about 8-10 minutes or until they start to get that golden color, keep them on a lower rack when broiling and just keep on eye on them since the precise time varies from one oven to another.

  5. My abuelita Stella solia cocinar a sus nietos pan de yuca con queso manabita en Bahia de Caraquez (Ecuador) cuendo era muy nino. Me encantaria poder recrear el sabor y las memorias pero en el norte de Inglaterra no se consigue. Lo que he podido encontrat es el platano verde fresco que se frie en rodajas para hacer los llamados patacones. Algun alma caritativa que me pueda recomendar una tienda online en inglaterra para comprar la harina de yuca.

  6. We got all the ingredients we are going to try the recipe we just need a yogurt recipe to be complete. You know you have to have your warm pan de yuca and your cold yogurt.

  7. update!!! i found some Tapioca Starch, made them today and they are FANTASTIC thank you so much for the wonderful recipe and your great photos of the food!

  8. I’m so mad… I wanted to try this recipe tonight as we’re going gluten free in my house, and i could not find the yuca starch at my local grocery store. I thought this was strange since i live in Puerto Rico. I sort of expected to find it there…. I’m going to have to check other stores. Thank you so much for this recipe I cannot wait to try it with local cheese. And then maybe with parmesan, chives and garlic.

  9. In New Zealand I found tapioca flour, which is imported from Thailand. I will probably try your recipe using cow feta cheese instead of mozzarella, as other recipes I’ve read suggest queso fresco, which I’ve not been able to find in New Zealand (even from a local cheese manufacturer). Thanks for the recipes!

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