Almojábana

Almojábana
Type	Bread
Region or state	Latin America
Associated national cuisine	Chile, Argentina, Colombia, Puerto Rico
Main ingredients	Corn flour, butter or margarine, eggs, cheese, sugar, leavening agent

Almojábana is a type of bread made with cuajada cheese and corn flour.^[1]^[2]

About

An almojábana is a small, bun-shaped bread having a tart flavor. It has some variations between Hispanic America and Spain.

The etymology stems from Hispano-Arab and that in turn from classical Arabic المُجَبَّنة"almuǧábbana" (made of cheese) the measure II passive participle of the root ج-ب-ن, the same root as جُبْن "jubn" (Cheese).^[3]

Ingredients

Colombia

Almojábanas are made with masarepa or pre-cooked white cornmeal, cottage cheese, butter, baking powder, salt, eggs, and milk.

Puerto Rico

In Puerto Rico almojábanas are small fried round-balls eaten in the northwest part of the island. They are made with rice flour, wheat flour, sugar, milk, butter, baking powder, salt, eggs, and fresh white cheese called queso de país. A sweeter version is served on Christmas using coconut milk and vanilla. Sweet almojábana are rolled into cinnamon-sugar and served with a guava sauce.

Celebration

The Almojában Festival is celebrated in Lares, Puerto Rico in October.^[4]

Gallery

A traditional breakfast in Bogotá and the surrounding region consisting of hot chocolate, cheese, and two kinds of bread: almojábana (on left) and pan de yuca on right.

References

^ Porup, Jens (2009). Colombia (5th ed.). Oakland, CA: Lonely Planet. ISBN 9781741048278.
^ "Colombian Cheese Bread Almojabanas". Retrieved 20 April 2015.
^ https://dle.rae.es/almojábana
^ "Lares Municipality". enciclopediapr.org. Fundación Puertorriqueña de las Humanidades (FPH). Archived from the original on 2019-06-03. Retrieved 2019-03-20.