I knew there was a holiday around, but yesterday my news feed confirmed that this was Easter weekend. More than that, it presented me with recipes of breads from around the world to celebrate Easter.

When I saw Paraguayan chipa among them, which I did not know was Paraguayan or Eastery, I remembered lazy afternoons in Brazil when I would get some freshly baked chipas at the supermarket and take them home to go with a nice a cup of coffee and cream cheese. There was no doubt Hot Cross Buns and Bread with Prosciutto and Olives would be left for another occasion. I made a few adaptations to the recipe, such as removing anise. The recipe comes right below the picture.

According to some research I did, Paraguayans will usually have this small bread “all day Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. By Friday it is usually so hard that it needs to be dipped in coffee or cocido (hot tea made with mate) to be edible.” (source, source 2 for more info on chipas). And indeed, they were super soft fresh out of the oven, but about 12 hours after being baked they were already a bit hard. Luckily (not for weight management) they were so good that not many lasted a second round of eating.

Chipa

Ingredients

400 grams of tapioca starch (I don’t endorse brands, but this is too funny for the 12-year-old in me to let it pass – mildly NSFW, depending on where you work)

150 grams of cornmeal

400 grams of cheese (I used cheddar)

4 eggs

1/2 tablespoon of baking powder

1/2 cup of milk

100 grams of butter

Directions

1. Mix the tapioca starch, cornmeal, baking powder and butter. Add milk, cheese and eggs and mix until well integrated.

2. Pre-heat the oven to 400 Fahrenheit (200 Celsius). Shape the dough into small balls or donuts. Place them on parchment paper on a baking tray and bake for 12-15 minutes. Eat while hot!