Chipa

Ingredients

Dough

• 500 galmidón de mandioca (cassava starch), sifted
• 300 gqueso Paraguay or firm fresh salty cow’s-milk cheese, coarsely grated
• 150 gbutter, soft
• 3large eggs, at room temperature
• 2 tspaniseed, lightly crushed
• 1 tspfine salt
• 80–150 mlwhole milk, warm

To bake

• banana leaves cut into squares, or baking parchment
• a little extra cassava starch, for the hands

Directions

1. Beat the butter with the salt and crushed aniseed in a wide bowl with a wooden spoon for 2 minutes until pale and creamy. In Paraguay this is done by hand, never in a machine.
2. Work in the grated cheese with your fingers until it disappears into the butter and the mixture looks like coarse wet sand.
3. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well between each, until the paste is glossy and slack.
4. Tip in the cassava starch all at once and rub it through with both hands; at this stage it will look dry and crumbly.
5. Add the warm milk a splash at a time, kneading 3–4 minutes, until you have a soft dough that holds a shape and no longer sticks to your palm. How much you need depends on how wet the cheese is. Rest 10 minutes.
6. Roll 60 g pieces into ropes 2 cm thick and 15 cm long, then press the ends together into rings and set them on banana leaves or parchment, 3 cm apart.
7. Bake at 220°C (425°F) in a fully preheated oven for 15–20 minutes, until the rings are puffed, split along the top and pale gold. Deep brown means dry.
8. Eat within a couple of hours, still warm, while the crust is crisp and the inside pulls into strings.

Technique

• Cassava starch has no gluten, so there is nothing to develop: knead only until smooth. Over-working after the milk goes in gives dense, rubbery chipa.
• Queso Paraguay is a fresh, salty, rennet-set cow’s cheese that softens into strands rather than melting to oil. The saltier the cheese, the less salt the dough needs, so taste it first.
• Chipa is Holy Week food, baked by the sackful on Wednesday to be eaten cold on Thursday and Friday. A tatakua, the domed clay oven of the countryside, gives a blistered base a home oven cannot. Older recipes use rendered animal fat rather than butter for a shorter, savourier crumb.
• It stales within a day. Revive it 4 minutes in a hot oven.

Substitutions

• No queso Paraguay: use two parts firm mozzarella or queso fresco to one part feta, for the salt and the tang. Drier cheese needs a little more milk.
• Almidón dulce (sweet starch) is standard; almidón agrio (sour starch) gives a tangier, more open crumb, so cut the milk slightly if that is what you find.

Variations

• Chipa mbocá: the same dough wound in a spiral round a green stick and turned over embers.
• Chipa piru: rolled thinner and baked longer into brittle sticks that keep for weeks.
• Chipa cuatro quesos, made with a mix of cheeses for a richer, saltier ring.

History

Cassava-starch and cheese bread of Guarani and Jesuit mission origin, sold at bus windows and eaten in Holy Week; Coronel Bogado calls itself its capital.

Frequently asked questions

What is Chipa?

Chipa is a bread & pastry from Paraguay: ring-shaped cheese bread of cassava starch and anise; Holy Week staple. Cassava-starch and cheese bread of Guarani and Jesuit mission origin, sold at bus windows and eaten in Holy Week; Coronel Bogado calls itself its capital.

How long does Chipa take to make?

Chipa takes 25 min of preparation and 20 min of cooking. The recipe makes 20 chipa. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Chipa?

Yes, within limits. No queso Paraguay: use two parts firm mozzarella or queso fresco to one part feta, for the salt and the tang. Drier cheese needs a little more milk. Almidón dulce (sweet starch) is standard; almidón agrio (sour starch) gives a tangier, more open crumb, so cut the milk slightly if that is what you find.

What is the most important thing to get right in Chipa?

Beat the butter with the salt and crushed aniseed in a wide bowl with a wooden spoon for 2 minutes until pale and creamy. In Paraguay this is done by hand, never in a machine.