I came across a beautiful food photo a while back, maybe on Instagram, and the caption read “cachapa.” Of course I had to seach online and discovered that cachapas are corn pancakes from Venezuela, typically served for breakfast.

Then I found this recipe from the Food Network, by Larisa Alvarez, a culinary producer. I can’t find if Ms. Alvarez is from Venezuela, but nonetheless she offers up the recipe for cachapas, otherwise known as Venezuelan corn pancakes.

These cheese-filled pancakes can be made on the sweeter side, served with jam and crema, or with less sugar, and with savory fillings. But they always have cheese inbetween the two pancakes.

The recommended cheese for the cachapa filling is queso de Mano, a Venezuelan soft white cheese. Unfortunately Amazon let me down. Instead, I used a pre-sliced Munster that I had just because it would be simpler than a grated cheese. Next time I’ll use fresh mozzarella.

I can definitely see serving these for breakfast, especially with smoked salmon!

Cachapas
Venezuelan Corn Pancakes

1/2 cup crema or sour cream, plus more for serving
Two 15.25-ounce cans whole kernel corn, drained (about 3 cups)
2 large eggs
2 heaping tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/3 cup arepa flour, such as P.A.N.
Nonstick cooking spray
16 ounces queso duro (hard cheese) or queso de mano (fresh, soft white cheese), thinly sliced or shredded
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees F.

Add the crema, half of the corn, eggs, sugar and salt to a blender and blend until the mixture is evenly combined but still chunky.

Add the arepa flour and the remaining corn, then blend until a thick, even batter forms with pieces of corn still visible. Let the batter sit a couple of minutes.

Meanwhile, heat a large nonstick skillet or a griddle over medium heat until warm and spray generously with cooking spray. Add two 1/4-cup scoops of the batter, spacing them apart, to form 2 pancakes. Smooth each out with the back of your measuring cup to form a 5-inch-wide pancake, making sure the center is thin and flat – the center takes longer to cook and if mounded will make the pancake much harder to flip. Cook until the bottoms are dark brown, almost black, about 5 minutes. While the pancakes cook, shred or slice your cheese, if necessary.

Flip the pancakes and top one of them with a quarter of the cheese. Cook until the cheese melts, about 3 minutes, then top the cheese with the second pancake. I cut my square Munster slices into rounds.

Transfer to a baking sheet and keep warm in the oven. (I didn’t bother with this.)

Make more cachapas with the remaining batter and cheese, wiping out the previous oil and spraying the skillet or griddle generously with cooking spray for each batch. I made one slightly larger cachapa as a fold-over, because I also have seen that as well as the “sandwiches”!

Once all of the cachapas are filled with cheese, top each with a half tablespoon of butter and serve with crema on the side, for dipping.

Cachapas are absolutely delicious! All you have to do is love corn and cheese!