Almojábana

Almojábana is the signature cheese-and-cornmeal breakfast roll of Colombia, especially the coffee-growing eje cafetero centred on Manizales, Pereira, and Armenia. The bread combines fresh queso fresco (or costeño cheese) with pre-cooked yellow maize flour, giving it a pale-yellow crumb, a crackling crust, and a savoury, faintly sour edge from the fresh cheese.

The dough is built from a cooked arepa-style corn-flour mash, into which crumbled queso fresco, eggs, butter, and a touch of sugar are folded while still warm. The mixture is rested, scooped into rounds, and baked at high heat until each roll is puffy and golden with a slightly cracked top. The bread is at its best within hours of leaving the oven, when the cheese is still faintly squeaky.

Almojábana is the classic accompaniment to a hot chocolate or aguapanela at Colombian breakfast tables, and is sold from street carts around Plaza de Bolívar in Bogotá, at roadside bakeries between Armenia and Salento, and in heritage bakeries such as La Almojábana del Tranvía in Manizales. It is also a key bread of the Colombian Coffee-Growers Cultural Landscape, a UNESCO World Heritage site.