Venezuelan Cachitos

Cachitos are a type of stuffed crescent-shaped bread roll commonly eaten for breakfast in Venezuela. Nobody knows the exact origin, most writeups (in both Spanish and English) will stipulate, though they will usually speculate that they were created by Portuguese immigrants opening bakeries in the early 20th Century. Wikipedia and a few other sites also mention other potential origins: that it was invented by Italian immigrants, or that it was an offshoot of the popular Venezuelan holiday delicacy pan de jamon, or that it was developed around 1940 a particular Italian baker named Pietroluchi Pancaldi in the city of Caracas. (. Some of these seem to be conflating an apocryphal story told in a 1981 magazine interview with Venezuelan playwright Rodolfo Santana, reversing Santana’s claim that Pancaldi drunkenly invented pan de jamon as a giant cachito variant! Instead, pan de jamon was introduced to Venezuela in 1903 by Caracas baker Lucas Ramella, claims Venezuelan cultural historian Miro Ramos, along with the Italian holiday bread Panettone and the then newly-popular French pastry croissant from which the cachito would evolve over the next few decades.

If you click on any of the Spanish-to-English Google tralsnations I linked above, you’ll see “cachitos” rendered as “little pieces,” based on “cacho” meaning “piece” or “slice” with the diminutive suffix “ito.” However, the word almost certainly derives from the South American slang use of the word “cacho” to mean horn, as in the horn of a goat (e.g. “cacho de cabra” or the goat’s horn chile pepper) and is a reference to the horn-like crescent shape of the roll.

Unlike modern croissants, cachitos are not made with a flaky, laminated pastry dough but with a soft, slightly sweet bread dough that is rolled into a shape much like that of a croissant. They are traditionally stuffed with chopped-up ham slices, though contemporary variants might add bacon or cheese, or replace the ham with turkey. Long-time Tribunal readers who care about such things will note that since this item, like the Nebraskan Runza we wrote about several years ago among other things, is made by stuffing a filling into a raw dough rather than a finished bread product, that we don’t really consider it officially a sandwich. But we also have stopped being sticklers for such things and prefer to simply enjoy such delicacies that the List brings us on their own terms.

Cachitos are apparently available from a few Venezuelan eateries in Chicago according to Google searches, but the surest bet seemed to be Klein’s Bakery & Cafe, which has 2 locations–on Armitage in Lincoln Park and on Broadway in Uptown.

Klein’s offers 3 types of Cachito.

These include ham, which may have a bit of bacon mixed into it. The salty, smoky filling stays relatively moist during baking, its steam trapped inside the roll with it, but by the time this is served at room temperature hours after baking, there is no gush of fat and juices that escapes the roll as its bitten into, or torn open as the case may be. It is usually consumed with coffee and/or fruit juices, and of the three that Klein’s offers, this one most needs something to wash it down.

Ham and cream cheese, which definitely has a bit of bacon mixed into it. Here the cream cheese provides a little lubrication, at least in the center of the roll, and it’s a natural combination with the ham-and-bacon meat filling.

And turkey and cream cheese, which I don’t believe has any bacon but maybe ought to. The turkey is less flavorful than the ham, and as a result the roll leans harder on the cream cheese. This was fine, but of the three it is the variety I would be least likely to order again.

The bread of the pastry, as mentioned, is made from a soft and slightly sweet dough, rolled out thin, and then rolled skillfully around its filling into an attractive, narrow-ended crescent shape. This is, as I found out, much more difficult than it looks.

Here is the link to the original, Spanish-language recipe I adapted, and I can’t say I did a great idea of making these. But now, having made them myself, I do understand why most people in Venezuela simply go get one at the cafe. They are not difficult to make, per se–nuances in the Google translation that didn’t come across well on first reading accounted for most of my mistakes–but they are time-consuming and effort-intensive. I would certainly need to practice shaping these a few more times before I could call myself competent.

I made three kinds as well, ham, ham with bacon and cream cheese, and turkey with bacon and cream cheese. I didn’t roll my dough out nearly as thinly as the version I had at Klein’s, and as a result my rolls were cruder, thicker, breadier. I can’t say that is overall a bad thing—the soft, slightly sweet dough does complement these fillings quite well.

As with what I had at Klein’s, I’m partial to the plain ham version, though it is the driest of the three. It is not particularly dry though, especially in my thicker, breadier version, where the steam from the ham kept the dough inside moist, though not quite leaving it still doughy thankfully.

Ham, bacon, and cream cheese is still a good secondary option though. Cream cheese is a natural partner for salty cured meats, and while this soft, sweet bread roll lacked the density, the chewiness of a bagel, the comparisons presented themselves regardless.

As with the cachitos from Klein’s, the turkey version was my least favorite–the bacon did not help it as much as I’d hoped. Perhaps a cheaper, less “good quality” deli turkey meat would help here–I used a nice, smokey mesquite-smoked turkey breast rather than a pinker, saltier, processed and prepackaged turkey but that more hamlike flavor might have worked better.

In any case, I enjoyed Cachitos, but in the future when desiring one I will almost certainly go get it at the cafe instead of making them again.