Unleash the Paraguayan in you (chipá cheese rolls)

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Chipá is a traditional bread from the north of Argentina and Paraguay. I´ve been meaning to make this for the blog for ages, but never got around to buying all that cheese. Basically, these are cheese rolls which use tapioca flour instead of regular wheat flour, which gives them a very smooth, chewy texture.

They are truly delicious and quite easy to make, freeze perfectly either raw or cooked, and are definitely crowd-pleasers. And it´s just made up of tapioca flour, butter, eggs and all sorts of cheese, what´s not to like?

In case you can´t find tapioca flour/starch where you live, you can buy it at Amazon for sure. And I can even give you a satisfaction guarantee, since I have never met anyone who doesn´t like them.

Traditional cheese rolls with tapioca (chipá)

Yields about 40 chipá

Tapioca flour or tapioca starch, 500g

4 eggs

Butter, 200g (about 1 3/4 sticks)

2 teaspoons salt (this will depend on the amount of salt the cheese you use has)

pepper

parmesan cheese, 250 grams (about 1/2 a pound)

mozarella or other soft cheese, 250 grams

manchego or other hard and somewhat spicy cheese, 250 grams

1. Put the tapioca in a big bowl (it is quite volatile so it can make a mess), along with cold butter (chopped roughly), the mozzarella or any semi-soft cheese (also roughly cut to make the process easier), the grated parmesan cheese, and the eggs.

2. Start mixing the ingredients by hand until the dough is somewhat formed. (Another method I´ve used is to first process the butter and the flour till it resembles a fine crumble and then add the soft cheese, the parmesan and the eggs until it forms a ball.)

3. Add the hard cheese cut into small squares to the dough and keep kneading until you have a homogeneous dough (with the exception of the hard cheese squares, which aren´t supposed to blend in).

4. Refrigerate for 30 minutes or so. This step can be skipped if in a hurry and they´ll still come out great. Or you can keep it in the fridge and finish the next day.

5. Take small pieces of dough and form little balls with it. (At this point, you can also freeze some of them raw and bake them later.)

6. Cook in a 400°F oven for around 10 mins, checking every 5 mins or so. The result should be crunchy outside and softer inside. (Be careful not too overcook them, otherwise they´ll get too dry. They should be quite soft and chewy on the inside.)

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Filed under Argentina, bread, food