Arepas

Last April, Shauna over at Gluten-Free Girl posted an article about arepas. Essentially, arepas are gluten free corn cakes. She had a friend with a mother from Venezuela who showed her how to make them.

I promptly printed out a short hand version (without all the pics and commentary) so I could try my hand at making them. Now, a mere nine months later, I decided the time was right to give it a try.

I mixed the dough by hand, as instructed. I patted each cake into a nice little circle. They took longer to form a crust on my stove. I was a little nervous about turning the heat up much higher. Then I gently placed them in the oven. It took waaaaaaaaaaaaay longer than the 15 minutes that Shauna waited. I have to say, I was a little disappointed in the final result. They reminded me of how Malt-o-Meal would taste if it was baked into a cake. Blech... {Remember how much I loved Malt-o-Meal, Mom?} Adding lots of butter, apricot jam, and other toppings helped to make it more palatable, but I'm not in a big hurry to try them again.

Fortunately, there is a Venezuelan woman in my ward. I've discussed arepas with her before and she told me she makes them all the time. Maybe it's time for me to invite her over for a cooking lesson.