Pan de Yuca (Ecuadorian Cassava Bread)

Pan de yuca is one of the most popular appetizers on the Ecuadorian coast and the recipe is one of the easiest to prepare. This gluten-free cheese bread is made with cassava flour, cheese, eggs, butter, baking powder, and salt.

Its texture is spongy with a somewhat crunchy, firm crust when fresh out of the oven. You can accompany it with yogurt or a coffee. It’s also eaten as breakfast or snack, or served as a starter or garnish for lunch.

Yuca bread makes a delicious hot appetizer. It can be made in advance and baked minutes before serving. (The bread is best if eaten soon after cooking, as leftover bread will get tough a few hours after baking.)

Pan de yuca in South America

Throughout South America, it seems that every country has some variation of this classic cassava bread.

In countries where this snack is popular, it’s cheap and is often sold by street vendors, in snack shops, and in grocery stores.

In Colombia is is known as pandebono. The dough has masa harina (corn flour used for making tortillas), and a touch of sugar.

In Paraguay, chipa dough has the addition of cornmeal and anise seeds.

Bolivia has a variation called cuñapé abizcochado that is double-baked, making them crispy and able to keep for days without refrigeration.

In Colombia, you can find it fried with the addition of cornstarch in the dough. These are called buñuelos.

What is yuca?

Yuca (pronounced yoo-ka) or cassava, is a tuber grown throughout Latin America and, although it is grown in Mexico, its consumption is more popular in Central and South American countries.

Cassava is used to make various traditional dishes and is usually eaten fried, or mashed, accompanied with chili and lemon.

From this tuber we get cassava starch (tapioca starch) and cassava flour (Farinha de mandioca). These 2 products are then used for baking.

You can learn more about cassava/yuca and the products made from them here.

How to make pan de yuca

To make pan de yuca you start by preheating the oven. This will ensure that the bread puffs up and stays puffed once it’s baked.

When working with cassava flour you need to be aware that it absorbs liquid very quickly.

It is better to start by mixing the cheese, flour, and butter first. Then add eggs, and finally the milk (as needed). This is especially important if you want to use a different cheese than what is suggested in this recipe.

Once you add all the ingredients, knead the dough. It only takes a couple of minutes for this dough to become soft and pliable. It doesn’t resemble dough made from regular flour, but more like playdough.

Once the dough is ready, divide it into 15 equal portions. I like to weigh the dough and then divide that number into 15 and weigh each portion so they all look the same. But you also can just eyeball it.

At this point, some people like to keep the shaped pan de yuca in the fridge until they are ready to bake them. I would, however, suggest that you don’t leave it overnight. In my personal opinion, they don’t have the same texture and sometimes they don’t rise as well if prepared that far in advance.

When ready to cook, bake the dough for 20 to 25 minutes. After 20 minutes they’ll be done cooking and the crust will be soft. I like to leave them in the oven for 23 to 24 minutes to get a browner pan de yuca with a more firm crust.

Cheese for cassava bread

I mentioned you can use different types of cheese. What you need to know is that different cheeses have different amounts of moisture.

If using fresh cheese, like queso fresco, queso panela, or fresh mozzarella, you might need to omit the milk completely (or use only 3 cups of cheese instead of 4).

Parmesan or Cotija cheese have a lot less moisture and are very salty. You’ll need to reduce the amount of salt to 1/4 teaspoon (or omit it completely) and add more milk, 1 tablespoon at a time until the dough comes together.