Quesadillas de Quito

Bea’s quesadillas quiteñas are sweet folded pastries associated with Quito, Ecuador. This selected adaptation uses thin wheat-flour bases around a cream-cheese filling containing wheat flour, rice flour, sugar, butter, egg fractions, baking powder and liquid cream.

For the bases, wheat flour and one large egg mix in a bowl with a silicone spatula. A tablespoon of water is added gradually until the dough comes away from the bowl without being sticky; extra flour corrects excess moisture if needed. Equal balls are rolled into very thin circles about fifteen centimetres across on a well-floured surface.

The two filling eggs are separated, and their whites are beaten to stiff peaks and reserved. In another bowl, sugar, cream cheese, butter, the same yolks and liquid cream mix with a whisk. The wheat flour, rice flour and baking powder are beaten in before the reserved whites fold through with the silicone spatula.

A generous spoonful of filling goes into the middle of each circle. Five folds bring the edges inward, with the corners pressed as each pastry is formed. The pastries sit on a tray, and their exposed cream is brushed with separately supplied beaten egg.

They bake at 180°C for about thirty minutes, or until lightly golden, then cool on a rack. Bea explains that her cream cheese replaces a creamy Ecuadorian cheese she could not find, and that she uses liquid cream where the recipe she followed used milk.