Oaxaca buns

If I were pressed to choose, I'd say the melty, crispy, browned cheesy bits on top of something straight out of the oven is one of the finest cook's reward. These little cuties are basically that reward in bun form. Further, calling them buns is a little dishonest, as they only have enough flour to loosely hold their shape. They're really more like dumplings, I guess.

Anyway, I've been playing around with the flour ratios for a while, so I may post an updated recipe when I'm finally, truly satisfied. This one calls for 1/4 cup tapioca flour to 3/4 cup all purpose. It's not quite perfect, but they're pretty delicious in this carnation, so I'll stop nitpicking. It would taste best with as much tapioca flour as possible but it has a very displeasing aftertaste when you use it exclusively. It's easy to find this at larger grocery stores, I use the Bob's Red Mill brand, and a small bag will last a long time.



Tapioca flour is, for most intents and purposes, interchangeable with cornstarch. I keep a small amount in a container near the stove and use to tighten up sauces that are not quite thick enough immediately before serving. The advantage that tapioca flour has over cornstarch is that it thickens more quickly and at a lower temp than cornstarch needs, just remember to create a slurry (mix w/a tablespoon or 2 of water or the liquid you want to thicken before adding) with it instead of dumping it in raw, to avoid clumping. I've seen some Thai recipes that call for a tapioca flour batter for frying, and I'm curious to see how it tastes.



A couple of quick notes about the recipe: 1) use gloves. 2) this recipe is infinitely better if you get a little zen with the cheese. in a perfect world, you should unknot it (Oaxaca cheese comes jumbled up like a pretzel and is just really long string cheese if you untangle it), string it into long strips and chop it up like that. It's meltier and flakier and tastes way better. Because my life is so filled with fabulously busy things, I didn't do it this time, but I sure wish i did.



1 jalapeno, deveined and deseeded
1 package Oaxaca cheese, finely chopped
1/4 cup tapioca flour
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
2 egg yolks
3 tablespoons cream (milk is fine if it's all you have, but start out w/2 tablespoons and see how it goes from there)
pepper

combine first three ingredients, tossing to coat. stir in remaining ingredients, kneading to combine.
dough should just stick together when you work a ball of dough in your hands for 10-15 seconds, warming it. if it's still crumbling, add more cream, a tablespoon at a time. Space slightly apart on a cookie sheet and bake @ 350 for 15-20 minutes, until deep golden. let cool on a wire rack immediately.



I made a pineapple-ginger butter to go with it, but i'm not happy enough with it to recommend you make it.



(mascot)