Venezuelan cachapas are like small corn cakes with cheese and tons of personality. Today I will show you two methods to make the perfect cachapas (corn pancakes).
This recipe is a staple in Venezuelan cuisine and one of my favorites recipes while I was growing up. I’m completely biased but I must say that the best cachapas are my mom’s.
I can almost taste the sweetness from my mom’s cachapas on Sundays after church. They were a hit in the neighborhood. Even the neighbors would suddenly stop by just to “say hello” and taste one of these beauties — I see you!
For those who are reading from the US, the most similar taste recipe that I can think of is southern corn casserole.
It’s sweet and with a lot of corn flavor. Also, it is a bit buttery.
So I would say that cachapas are like a corn casserole made in the shape of a pancake.
What to eat with cachapas?
Cachapas are usually filled with cheese or chicharron. Traditionally, the type of cheese is “queso de mano” or “queso telita”. But, these types of cheese are difficult to find outside Venezuela.
So, here in Europe, my best option is fresh buffalo mozzarella cheese. It melts quite well. The main difference is that mozzarella is less stringy and less salty. But, I must say it does a fine job contrasting the sweet flavor of the cachapas.
But you can also fill cachapas with shredded chicken or shredded meat to make a protein-heavy meal.
Differences between cachapas and arepas?
This is a pretty common question for people that are not that familiarized with Venezuelan food. Both are made of corn, but they are completely different at the same time — flavor and texture-wise.
Arepas are made with cornflour and cachapas are made with fresh corn. Arepas are savory and hard like bread. So, they can be filled with almost anything and they keep their shape.
Cachapas are soft and sweet like a pancake.
Original recipe
Cachapas are made with a tender fresh corn cob. So, the only difference between using canned corn or fresh corn is that with fresh corn you need to add some type of liquid. Because canned corn is soaked in water and absorbs part of it and it has a higher moist level than fresh cob corn.
The original cachapas recipe with fresh corn is the following:
- 400 gr sweet corn
- 2 tbsp melted butter
- 1 egg
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup of milk
Now, with the substitutions to make cachapas just using canned corn. I use the exact same amount of every ingredient except the milk. I remove the milk most of the time. Some brands of canned corn are a bit drier and in that case, I can add 1 or 2 tbsp of milk. But generally, I just let the milk out when using canned corn.
Besides that detail the recipe it’s just the same.
The best part of this recipe is that it has just one step to prep: blend all the ingredients until you get a thick paste.
The consistency of the batter is the most important thing for the success of this recipe. Don’t blend the batter too much because you want to keep some of the corn texture.
After that, all it takes is to cook the corn cakes in a nonstick pan. Just like making pancakes. Pour some batter, let it cook for a couple of minutes until tiny holes appear at the surface. Flip, cook a couple of minutes more and serve.
I add the cheese right away so it can begin to melt with the residual heat from the cachapa. Optionally, you can add a bit of butter on top.
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