Pandebono (pronounced pahn-de-boh-no) is a type of Colombian cheese bread. It is baked and made from yuca/cassava flour and conrmeal flour. Although pandebono is enjoyed across all of Colombia, they originated in the Valle De Cauca region of the country where my parents are from. They are typically the size of small rolls, but can also be made into a donut shape (with a hole in the middle). They are most commonly included for breakfast with quesito and hot chocolate, but can be enjoyed any time of the day!
Pandebono is naturally gluten-free and savory, and can sometimes be filled with guava paste.
What You’ll Need:
- 1 ¼ cup of queso blanco (I find this cheese at my local Hispanic grocery store)
- 1 cup of feta cheese
- 1 egg
- ⅔ cup of yuca or cassava flour (NOT cassava or yuca starch)
- ½ cup of almond milk
- ¼ cup of white precooked cornmeal (I only use PAN)
- 2 tablespoons of vegan butter (I use Earth Balance)
- 1 tablespoon of sugar
- ¾ teaspoon of salt
- ¾ teaspoon of baking powder
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 400F.
- In a food processor, combine the queso blanco (crumbled), feta cheese (crumbled), yuca flour, cornmeal flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Mix well until the cheese becomes fine.
- Remove the ingredients from the food processor and place into a large bowl.
- Slowly add the egg as you use an electric mixer to mix the dough. (Note: the dough will still be dry, but will have a few wet parts from the egg.) Then, add the melted butter and combine.
- Once the egg is incorporated, continue mixing the dough with the electric mixer and slowly add splashes of the almond milk to moisten up the dough. Be sure to slowly add the almond milk 1 tablespoon at at time. (NOTE: not all at once because the amount of almond milk will vary depending on how dry your dough is. I usually need ¼ to ½ cup of almond milk, but I’ve found that anything more is usually too much and the dough turns out too wet. You are looking for consistency that is a tad bit runnier/softer than cookie dough.)
- Continue mixing with the electric mixer until the dough starts to clump together and turns into one big clump in the center of the bowl. As you add liquid and continue to run the electric mixer, the dough will naturally stick together into one mass. Once this happens, you know your dough is ready.
- Once it is in one clump, remove the electric whisk and use your hands to thoroughly incorporate the dough. The consistency should now be like a soft/runnier cookie dough. When you pinch dough in between your thumb and pointing finger, the dough should only stick to one finger (not both).
- Cover the dough with a dish towel and let it sit for 10 minutes.
- After 10 minutes, take small sections of the dough and roll them into balls.
- Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil and lightly grease (I use olive oil spray) then place the pandebono on the sheet and bake for 18-22 minutes.
- Remove the pandebonos from the oven and let them cool slightly before enjoying!
- Yields 8-12 pandebonos
