Kids in the Kitchen Wednesday: Cheesecake Quesadillas

We really have the greatest readers in the whole world. Seriously, you guys rock. Last week, one of our awesome readers, Erin, was kind enough to pass along a recipe for Cheesecake Quesadillas that had our mouths watering (especially since we knew we had cream cheese and tortillas already in the kitchen!). We filed the recipe away under 'We'll try these one night when we have time'- and that time came sooner rather than later!

It was just another Friday night in the Wisconsin Test Kitchen; there were little girls running around shooting each other with Nerf guns, making homemade pizzas, and singing along to Katy Perry songs (yeah, all at the same time). Once they were exhausted from Nerf gunning and Katy Perry-ing, they wanted a snack. Time for quesadillas! 

We were gathering ingredients together, and noticed we didn't have ground cinnamon. We had cinnamon sticks, but no ground cinnamon. We ended up grinding them up in the coffee grinder and voila! Fresh cinnamon. Side note: our kitchen smelled AMAZING for 2 hours after this 'Necessity is the mother of invention' moment. But we digress.

Cheesecake Quesadillas

Recipe courtesy of: http://www.pbs.org/food/fresh-tastes/cheesecakedilla/


1/4 cup cream cheese, at room temperature
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 small (7-inch) flour tortillas
1 teaspoon butter, at room temperature


Put the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla extract in a bowl, and use a silicone spatula to combine the mixture together until smooth and uniform in color.

Stir the cinnamon and remaining 1/2 teaspoon of sugar together in a small bowl and set aside.

Spread a 1/2 teaspoon of butter onto one side of each tortilla.
Flip one of the tortillas over (so that the buttered side is facing down), and then spread the cream cheese mixture onto the non-buttered surface.

Top this with the other tortilla with the buttered side facing up. You want to sandwich the cream cheese between the two tortillas with the buttered surfaces facing outwards.

Heat a cast iron skillet over medium heat until the pan is hot, and then add a cheesecakedilla. Fry pressing down gently with a spatula to flatten it (but not enough to squeeze the cream cheese out of the sides) until it's browned and crispy on one side, and then flip.

Brown the other side, and then transfer it to a cutting board before dusting it with the cinnamon sugar. Slice into wedges and serve with your favorite toppings.

Note from the Test Kitchen

-Don't attempt to make this in a panini grill. Your toppings will ooze out the side of the quesadilla, and you'll have a big mess on your hands. Use the frying pan. The extra dishes will be worth it, we promise.

-As far as toppings go, we served our quesadillas with salted caramel chocolate sauce, but fruit would be delicious too. 

Thanks to Erin for this fun recipe, and we'd love for more of our readers to share recipe ideas with us!

Stay Cool,
The Cool Dads Crew