Colombian Sweet Stuffed Breakfast Arepas

[gracoman]

These sweet breakfast arepas are made with summer sweet corn processed until smooth in the food processor, arepas flour, brown sugar and stuffed with melty cheese.

Frying in the CI


Plated




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[curious aardvark]

what's arepas flour ?
A brand or a type ?



and is that chocolate sauce or balsamic glaze ?

[gracoman]

That is balsamic glaze. It seems to work everywhere. Even on ice-cream.

Arepas flour is pre-cooked white or yellow corn meal popular in S American countries. It is a labor intensive process to produce so when P.A.N. showed
up it took over the market. P.A.N. is the only arepas flour. There are no substitutions.




I just produced another very sweet breakfast arepa. Stuffed with boysenberry preserves and pounded with the powder. This one's not for me.
I'll let my son deal with that sugar bowl




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[IrishChef]

Just spent a month down in Miami for work, and I gotta say, the Latin pastries are pretty f'ing delicious, whether they are sweet or savory, Cuban or Ecuadorian......

On a side note: There is a reason a 4oz cup of Cuban coffee comes with 8-1/2 oz shot glasses....its kinda meant to be shared, not guzzled.....thought the top of my head was gonna come off.....

[curious aardvark]

so pre-cooked cornmeal - is that kinda like precooked polenta ?

Or is it a dry flour they've cooked ?

either way you're final products look delicious

[gracoman]

so pre-cooked cornmeal - is that kinda like precooked polenta ?
Or is it a dry flour they've cooked ?

No, it's not quite the same as polenta or even masa harina.

From Wikipedia
Making arepas
The dough can be prepared two ways. The traditional, labor-intensive method requires the maize grains to be soaked, then peeled and ground in a large mortar known as a pilón. The pounding removes the pericarp and the seed germ, as only the endosperm of the maize seed is used to make the dough. The resulting mixture, known as mortared maize, or maíz pilado, was normally sold as dry grain to be boiled and ground into dough.

Arepa flour is specially prepared (cooked in water, then dried) for making arepas and other maize dough-based dishes, such as hallacas, bollos, tamales, empanadas and chicha. The most popular brand names of maize flour are Harina PAN in Venezuela and Areparina in Colombia.

There are 2 major styles of arepas. Venezuelan are first fried for a crunchy outer crust and then baked for a soft interior. I use these for making sandwiches.
Puerco Pibil Arepas


The second style is Columbian which may have the addition of eggs, smooth processed corn, melted butter etc. I use these for the sweet arepas you see above.

Both are excellent and very different from the usual fare.


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[sweet_magnolia]

Never heard of arepas but they look fantastic!