Unlike our usual stove-top quesadilla made with corn or flour tortillas and jack cheese, cheese crisps are open-faced, and made with very large flour tortillas, that are toasted with butter and cheddar cheese, and often topped with strips of mild green chiles. According to my Tucson-native mom, these open-faced quesadillas are made with especially large, thin, flour tortillas that you could find in Sonora, the northernmost state of Mexico. Typically they are served on a large platter, sometimes cut like a pie, for everyone to share. They are crispy, buttery, and absolutely delicious. The tortillas one uses to make cheese crisps are much thinner than the sturdy burrito-sized flour tortillas we found to make these. It just means we need to cook them a little longer to get them crispy. Don’t pile on the cheese too much; as with pizza, doing so will weigh down the result.
Want to make your own tortillas? Try this recipe: Homemade Flour Tortillas
To roast your own, blacken them over a gas stove, on a grill, or under a broiler, then put the chiles in a covered bowl for a few minutes, then rub off the blackened skin. (See How to Roast Chiles over a Gas Flame video.) Then de-seed them and cut them into strips. Return the tortilla to the oven and cook for 2 more minutes, or until all of the cheese has melted. Remove from oven and eat! My mother will use her oven’s convection setting when she makes these cheese crisps. For convection, she’ll put the buttered tortilla into a cold oven and heat on convection at 375°F for 7 to 10 minutes. Then she’ll sprinkle the cheese and return the quesadilla to the oven for a couple more minutes. Flour Tortillas: Where they came from and how to make them Quesadilla Recipe Classic Cheese Crisps - from What’s Gaby Cooking
