Customer Reviews

Santa Fe Quesadilla Maker

5 star:		(110)
4 star:		(53)
3 star:		(24)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(19)

 

 

I bought this little appliance on a lark thinking that it would be something to try and would probably end up in the little-used appliance graveyard in my basement. It has since turned into an indispensable part of my kitchen. I love the nonstick surface of the grills (easy to clean), and I especially love that the lid locks, and the entire appliance stores upright, thus leaving some empty counter space while keeping the grill close at hand.

I've read some of the other reviews here, and I can honestly say that I don't have anything negative to write about this appliance. I only had some of the filling drip out onto my counter once, and that taught me to put the filling (meat, veggies, cheese, salsa) closer to the middle of the tortillas. Trust me, it all cooks, and it spreads out to the rest of the tortillas. I've never taken the time to measure out portions of the filling, and this hasn't been a problem. I have also had no problem whatsoever finding tortillas to fit; in fact, I often bring home a couple of bags and refrigerate them so we always have them on hand. I now also keep plenty of colby, monterrey jack and cheddar cheeses on hand for those quick quesadilla fixes! Another reviewer mentioned problems with the tortillas not getting completely done, but I've never experienced that with mine. I've also found that I can use one tortilla and make a 1/2 serving as a quick snack. Since the grill marks perfectly formed triangles on the quesadillas, you can easily cut them or pull them apart into even servings. My only suggestion is to make sure that you pre-grill any meat that you use since this appliance isn't really meant to fully cook meat.

The quesadilla maker comes with a mini recipe book. I encourage you to try some of the dessert tortillas. I made a cinammon-sugar one that was absolutely fantastic with some vanilla ice cream! Yum!

We received this as a gift, and have made great use of it. It is very easy to use: just put a tortilla on the bottom, scoop some filling (ground beef, chicken, cheese, vegetables, etc.) into the pockets, put a tortilla on top, and close the lid! It makes perfect, light-golden-brown quesadillas every time. The triangular quesadilla sections are easy to break apart and remain sealed (i.e., they don't leak the filling).

We have found that it is able to make quesadillas more than fast enough to keep up with the consumption requirements of a family of four (unlike a typical waffle iron, where you are always waiting for the next one). Leftovers are great to snack on or put in a school lunch.

It is extremely easy to keep clean and is very durable.

I am a fan of quesadillas and I usually make them by slapping a flour or corn tortilla on the pancake grill, adding some grated cheese and salsa, topping with another tortilla and mashing it and flipping it for a few minutes until the surface is toasted and the cheese melted. A couple of swipes with a knife on a board and I have a quesadilla, a fast lunch or dinner or snack.

To make "professional" quesadillas with sealed edges, you need the Quesadilla Maker, which presses your tortillas into cute little wedge shaped pie sections. This unit is made by Salton, lord of all heated griddle and grill appliances, and it's pretty useful if you, like me, enjoy quesadillas and need a quick snack or meal.

WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE

It's bright red (warning, if your kitchen clashes with bright red, hide it away or make a dust cover for its salsariffic redness.) It's round, like a waffle iron and takes up more space than I was expecting. It's maybe 11 inches in diameter and a few inches high. The manufacturer recommends that you put something UNDER it if you cook on formica or other plastic (read CORIAN) countertops as the heat can discolor your counters. Believe it.

There are two lights on the lid, green and, you guessed it, red. The red light is the 'power indicator' and the green light is the 'ok, time to cook light'. As in many of the Salton grills, the heat is one temperature. There is no adjustment and no timer.

Inside, there are two concentric circles on a non-stick surface and wedge-shaped impression inside these circles. The circles are the outer perimeter seal of your tortilla, and the wedge areas are where the filling gets pushed into the quesadilla pockets. There are six segments. The unit has a hole in front, oval, and a small drip pan that fits under it. This is obviously to catch any fat or cheese or filling running out of your quesadilla. Nice touch.

MAKING A QUESADILLA

After the first use, where you prime the plates with a bit of vegetable oil, you are ready to cook. Heat it up, wait for the GREEN light and get your ingredients ready to go.

NOW HERE'S THE KICKER: This unit says USE ONLY 10" FLOUR TORTILLAS. No small burrito size, no CORN torillas, which ticked off the non-wheat-eater in the house who also loves quesadillas and his are made special with good quality corn tortillas to suit his delicate tummy. Sadly, we haven't found hugeaceous corn tortillas to try out, and I assume they might not work well in any case. If we find 10 inch corn tortillas, we will experiment and report back here (assuming we survive the experiment.) But for now, assume 10" flour ONLY. And they must be fresh and pliable, not old, hard and stiff.

Now you are ready to distribute your ingredients evenly over the tortilla. OLA! Do not allow el queso (cheese) or meat or salsa to touch the edges. The quesadilla will not seal and the juice or flowing lava cheese will run out of the front. Also, this isn't magic. If you put a hamburger (whole) inside, the quesadilla maker will not magically press it down effectively. Anything that can tear out of the relatively fragile wrap is likely to poke through. I suggest you use chopped meat (taco meat) or finely sliced meats and not big chunks or strips.

Also, there is not enough heat for enough time to cook a tough pepper. Or fry an onion. If you like these things, cook them in a touch of oil on the stove, stir fry style and then put them inside. Again, they should be fine strips.

After you fill your quesadilla and pop on the top tortilla, close the lid and let it ride for five minutes.

When done, pull it off with a heatproof spatula and place on a plate that can take the ministrations of a pizza cutter or knife, because you will have to divide up the sections. The maker does not cut the segments up for you.

CONSIDERATIONS

1. It takes up counter space, about the size of typical waffle irons.
2. It's RED
3. How many quesadillas do you eat (we eat them, so this is fine, but as a fad in the house, you may be better off with a sandwich maker instead.)
4. No corn tortillas. So wheat-free people will not be happy with this unit.

SUMMARY

I like the Quesadilla Maker because we like these Mexican grilled cheese sandwiches for snacks and quick meals. I am playing with recipes like Stuffed Sopapilla Filling with Green Chile Sauce, to replace deep-fried, puffy, lard dough sopapillas with a more healthy alternative. I like the idea I can make hot pockets with my own filling, so to speak.

I was not pleased of the limit of 10" flour tortillas only, but it's a small price to pay for a unit that makes a great snack, and might I add, a great kind of hors d'oeuvre.

I initally put this item on my bridal registry as a joke, and actually ended up recieving it. After I took it home and unpacked it I decided to give it a try, and I was rather impressed. The surface is certainly non-stick, which comes in handy when you forget to put the top tortilla shell on and the cheese begins to melt to the top iron. It cooks the quesadillas evenly and when you are finished cooking them (which only takes about 4-5 min)you can easily break off the sections. The cooking time is quick, and even with the prep time it takes to cook the chicken for the filling, you're looking at about a half an hour tops before dinner is ready. I am very satisfied with the quesadilla maker, even though I initially thought of it as a joke. It is certainly a worthwile purchase, especially when the gang is coming over for the game.

I bought this on a whim, it was in a sale list, seemed reasonable, and would be something that my daughter could use to make an after-shool snack. It works great. I love it, she loves it.

I find it very easy to use and clean up. We have made many different kinds of quesadillas with it, and have had great success each time. The only filling that caused problems was using the peanut butter and jelly suggestion from the book included with the machine. The filling did tend to leak a bit, but once the tortillas had "sealed" there was no more leakage. It seemed the filling melted before the seal was formed.

As mentioned in other reviews, clean up is a snap. A paper towel or two, and you are done. Nothing seems to stick - even the peanut butter and jelly!

As mentioned in another review, I have found it is easier to assemble the quesadilla before you put it on the griddle. The plates seemed to cool too much when I tried to assemble the food with the cover open. A little advance planning solved this problem.

If you prefer a browner, crisper snack, simply spray the griddles lighly with a non-stick cooking spray before you start. I learned this by accident, the first one I ever made was brown and crisp, the later ones lost this. By spraying the griddles, I got the original results again and again.

We find this to be very family friendly. By setting out a few different types of toppings, everyone can make their own, just the way they want it.

I would highly recommend this appliance to anyone who enjoys quesadills as a quick, easy to clean up to the traditional skillet method.

The main reason I bought this gadget -- reluctantly, too, because of a shortage of storage space -- was that I have a little trouble turning quesadillas over in a skillet without a couple of ingredients flying out. But the Santa Fe was such a disappointment that I immediately returned it. First, it requires that you use only 10-inch tortillas. None that I've found are exactly this size. The tortillas came out almost raw tasting in the middle and dry and hard around the edges. There are also exact requirements for amounts of cheese and other ingredients. So you have to measure. I guesstimated, and a lot of cheese oozed out and into the drip tray. The best I can say is that it was easy to clean. But I have happily gone back to my nonstick skillet, which heats up just as quickly on the electric stove and produces much tastier quesadillas, browned exactly right, more quickly than in the appliance. To ease flipping, just spend 50 cents each on two nonstick, double-size spatulas at Walmart.BTW, I used PAM spray on both skillet and Santa Fe, but somehow the skillet ones tasted better, and my husband was the first to say so. As another reviewer said, the bright red color is great. And the stand-up storage feature is nice, too. But for good food, I prefer a skillet.

I really like this unit. I have made 4 batches of quesadillas so far. The best batch came out using low carb whole wheat tortillas with slices of muenster inside. The booklet recommends shredded cheese, but I found that cheese to become too diluted so that you felt you were eating 2 tortillas pressed together with "essence of cheese" in between. Muenster really holds up;cheddar disappears...white Mexican cheese would probably be good as well. The tortillas I bought were larger than 10" in diameter and went into the drip reservoir rings, but this posed no problem, and they cooked well. If cheese does get onto the cooking plates, it wipes off completely with a paper towel. If any gets in a crevice, a toothpick will clean it right out. I had no leakage with the sliced cheese. After the quesadiila is cooked it will have the triangular impressions on it. Use a pizza wheel to cut along these lines, and you will have beautiful quesadilla triangles that rival any Mexican restaurant's!

Do not try to lock the unit when cooking. This compresses the quesadilla too much. It will cook fine unclamped. Cook for about 3 minutes...too long and your quesadilla will be too crunchy. I have not tried adding seafood or other meats to the quesadillas, nor can I give an accurate account of the unit's durability since I just got it, therefore I gave it 4 instead of 5 stars. The quesadillas taste great, and it's a very easy, quick, and fun way to make a family dinner that everyone will enjoy. There's no oil involved, and if you use low fat cheese and whole wheat tortillas, it makes a satisfying, healthy meal. Get it...you'll use it and like it!!! Muy aprovecho!

We received this quesadilla maker as a wedding gift, and were thrilled because we love quesadillas. I have given it four stars because it does make excellent quesadillas, but the whole process was a little annoying. First, we were never able to find tortillas to fit. We used the great big (I think 12 inch) ones which stuck too far out the edges and had to be trimmed at the place where the machine folds. Then we used the little one, which didn't reach the edge of the heating surface, so the first quesadilla had all the ingredients squeezed out the sides when the machine was closed. This caused a problem because the food was straight on the heating surface and started to smoke which set off our fire alarm. After that we learned to put a lot fewer ingredients in the quesadilla and to keep the filling total away from the edges of the quesadilla so it didn't squeeze out. That ended up making the quesadillas too crusty and hard. So it was back to trimming the larger tortillas. So- if you can find or make the correct size tortillas, the machine is great. Another problem is that it is an awkward size and shape. We have limited kitchen space, but because of the funny lid, little legs and roundness, it makes it difficult to get in and out of the cabinet without a lot of hassel. Because of the space problem, it has now been sentenced to a prison term in our basement. We probably don't use it as much as we would if it were easy to access. Finally, there is the cleaning issue. I am very obsessive about cleaning and the areas of the machine that touch the food cannot be removed to be cleaned. As on the George Forman grill, you just have to use a wet soapy sponge and then a a rinsing cloth. This makes me shudder. If an item cannot be submerged in the sink or dishwasher, I cannot really feel it is clean. This is one of those items I always feel might be a little dirty. So while these sound like a lot of negatives, it really does make good quesadillas when you can get all the problems worked out- the tortilla pieces seal around the edges so the ingredients don't leak, it makes the quesadilla a nice golden brown, and melts the cheeses well.

This is a terrific appliance! 7 minute Quesadillas! I sprayed a little Pam, plugged in this machine, put some Perdue shortcuts chicken in my mini chopper, put the chicken and pre shredded Mexican cheese on a tortilla, put a tortilla on the top, put it in this machine and closed the top. While it was cooking I put some sour cream and salsa on a dish and 5 minutes later I had delicious quesadillas! Nothing stuck to the nonstick finish, just wipe it with a wet paper towel (after it cools) and you're done. Nothing oozed out, no drips at all, and if you over fill and it oozes there is a drip tray for the front and a built in drip area around the rim. It is much better than I expected. I bought it at Bed, Bath and Beyond and in addition to the manual/recipe book it also came with a cookbook, I can't wait to try more recipes. And, you can store it upright so it saves cabinet space. It will pay for itself in 2 quesadillas, plus you can enjoy them at home. Highly recommended!

Since I have purchased this Quesadilla Maker (6-7 months ago), I truly have to say that my household uses this thing atleast once a week. My roommate doesn't cook much so this is the easiest thing for her to make. Also, whenever i have a small gathering of people over, they always make a special request for Quesadillas.

It's an instant party each and everytime, plus it's easy to use and easy to clean. The only gripe that I have about it is that there is no On and Off button/switch. So whenever you use it, it comes on automatically when you plug it in. That seems a bit dangerous to me, but that is it's only flaw. Still I would have to recommend it, especially to those that wastes money buying ...quesadillas. Why pay someone else, when you can do it yourself!