Quesadilla Salvadoreña (Salvadoran cheese pound cake)

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Quesadilla Salvadoreña brings many memories of sitting with my family on a Saturday morning or after a party around a table eating a piece of it with warm coffee. You may have heard of 'pan dulce' or sweet bread before, quesadilla is a type of sweet bread from El Salvador. It's made with Salvadoran cheese, sour cream and rice flour as some of the main ingredients. The consistency is similar to a pound cake and it's typically enjoyed with coffee or hot chocolate.

My mom did not have a recipe but we were all in luck that @hoozay on instagram posted his mom's recipe a few days ago. His moms recipe is for a big batch of about 3-4 big trays so the measurements below are cut in half for a smaller batch that made 6 muffins and two 9in round pans.

I bought enough to make the big batch but I split it into two in case I made any mistakes, and I'm so glad I did! I learned a lot in the first batch and for the second batch I was able to adjust the recipe to taste.

How to make quesadilla Salvadoreña?

Let me start out by saying that I researched many different recipes and no two recipes were the same. They all had similar ingredients but varied in type of cheese and measurements for some of the ingredients.

Tips:

1. Melt the butter: The first batch the butter was not fully melted and it caused the consistency of the batter to be bumpy

2. Eggs should be at room temperature and whisked

3. Use two big bowls: One for dry ingredients and the other for wet ingredients.

4. Don't buy gourmet parmesan the taste is too strong and it caused the quesadilla to have a strong parmesan flavor. The already grated parmesan in a bottle works fine.

5. Salvadoran products can be found at Latin/Hispanic grocery stores or Salvadoran restaurants sometimes sell Salvadoran products.

6. Grate or process the cheeses as small as you can

7. Let it rest for 30 mins before you eat it

Ingredients: @hoozay mom's recipe for approximately four large trays. You can visit his Instagram profile to see his original post.

• 1 lb Salvadoran queso duroblando

• 1 lb Parmesan Cheese

• 1 lb buttermilk pancake mix

• 1 lb rice flour

• 2 cups of sugar

• 1 tbsp baking powder

• 1 tsp baking soda

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 1lb Salvadoran cream

• 1lb unsalted melted butter

• 4 eggs at room temperature

• 5 cups of whole milk

• Sesame seeds

Measurements for half the amount: I made 6 muffins and two 9inch round pans of out of this.

• 8 oz Salvadoran queso duro blando

• 8 oz Parmesan Cheese

• 8 oz buttermilk pancake mix

• 8 oz rice flour

• 1 cups of sugar:

• 1/2 tbsp baking powder

• 1/2 tsp baking soda

• 1/4 tsp salt

• 8 oz Salvadoran cream

• 8 oz unsalted melted butter (two sticks)

• 2 eggs at room temperature

• 2 1/2 cups of whole milk

• Sesame seeds

Below is the recipe with the adjustments I made after the first batch: This one was less cheesier tasting and a bit more sweet.

• 8 oz Salvadoran queso duro blando

• 4 oz Parmesan Cheese

• 8 oz buttermilk pancake mix

• 8 oz rice flour

• 1 1/2 cups of sugar:

• 1/2 tbsp baking powder

• 1/2 tsp baking soda

• 1/4 tsp salt

• 8 oz Salvadoran cream

• 8 oz unsalted melted butter (two sticks)

• 2 eggs at room temperature

• 2 1/2 cups of whole milk

• 1/2 tbsp of vanilla extract

• Sesame seeds

Step by step instructions:

1. Heat your oven to 350.

2. Grab a bowl and mix in all of the dry ingredients: cheeses, pancake mix, rice flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

3. Grab a second big bowl and mix all the wet ingredients, the bowl has to fit the dry ingredients as well.

   1. Whisk the eggs

   2. Whisk in the melted butter

   3. Whisk in the cream

   4. Whisk in the whole milk

   5. Whisk in the vanilla extract

4. Start to whisk in the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until fully combined. The batter should be similar to pancaked batter consistency just a bit more thicker.

5. Grease your pan or pans and fill 1 to 1 1/2 inches or desired thickness with the batter and sprinkle the top with sesame seeds.

6. Place your pan in the middle of the oven and bake until golden brown

   1. Muffins: 35-40 mins

   2. 9inch round glass pan: 40-45 mins

We had a divided house, half of our household liked the first batch with more of a cheesier taste and the other half liked the second batch. Both are delicious, so I'm sure whichever you choose to make will turn out great! To see the video guide follow me on Instagram or TikTok @flourishwithg.