Greensboro home cook Melissa Sperka wins big with Bananas Foster Quesadilla recipe

Bananas Foster Quesadilla 

Greensboro home cook Melissa Sperka's Bananas Foster Quesadilla recipe has been awarded a blue ribbon at Just A Pinch Recipes, a recipe and coupon social network for home cooks at www.justapinch.com.

This is quite an honor considering only about 2% of the 150,000 recipes posted to the website have received this award. Sperka is one of 650+ home cooks in the Greensboro area participating on justapinch.com.

Bananas Foster Quesadillas

by Melissa Sperka (Greensboro)

Ingredients

4 8-10 inch flour tortillas

8 oz softened Neufchatel cheese

2 bananas cut in half lengthwise, then sliced

1/2 c powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsp orange zest

10 oz jar of caramel ice cream topping

1 tsp rum flavoring

1 stick softened butter

1/4 c dark brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

Directions"

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In a mixing bowl, mix together the softened cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla extract and orange zest. When the mixture is fully combined, gently fold in the sliced bananas.

·       Onto one half of each flour tortilla spread 1/3 cup of the cream cheese mixture. Fold the tortilla over, and place it onto a flat platter. Repeat this with all four tortillas, then cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes. This will allow the filling to chill before browning.

·       In a separate bowl, mix together one stick of softened butter, 1/4 cup of dark brown sugar and 1 tsp. of cinnamon.

·       To prepare the quesadillas, spread one side of each with the cinnamon butter mixture. Lay buttered side down in a pre-heated non-stick pan over medium-high heat.

·       While the first side is browning, spread the butter mixture onto the other side. Cook on medium-high heat until the quesadilla is browned on both sides, you may need to lower the heat a little to avoid burning the brown sugar.

·       To serve, cut the quesadillas in half and drizzle with the caramel rum glaze (recipe below). Garnish with powdered sugar and whipped cream. Serve hot.

·       Caramel Rum Glaze: 1 10 oz jar of caramel ice cream topping, 1 tsp. of rum flavoring - Heat the topping in a microwave safe bowl until it is the consistency of syrup. Add the rum flavoring then drizzle over the hot quesadillas before serving.

·       Cook's note: Do not walk away from the pan when you're preparing the quesadillas, the brown sugar will caramelize quickly and it can burn easily.

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