Our recent visit to La Cocina de Tita Moning and the warm Queso de Bola toasts they served awakened a dormant “excessive calorie pica-pica gene†in Mrs. MM. She wolfed them down like they were M&M’s… At any rate, it turns out they were a frequent snack in her younger days and that unique taste of bubbling QdB turned into a slightly crisp/chewy salt fix when cooled was just too good to pass up… So when a regular Marketmanila reader, Katrina, mentioned the same toasts, and dissing the commercial versions at that (dissing nicely, of course) I decided to whip out some old QdB from the fridge and experiment. You see, I didn’t eat these as a kid but I had them at other people’s homes instead. Taking a cue from Katrina’s comment that no one seemed to make them as good as her lola, and that it only consisted of butter and QdB, I was confident I could re-create this snack and decided to name them after the recipe triggerer…
In a bowl I added about 1/3 cup of unsalted butter, softened a bit. Then I added about ½ cup of grated queso de bola. That didn’t look like enough so I kept adding more until I must have used over ¾ cup, possibly even a whole cup of grated queso de bola into the mixture. 
I spread this on square whole wheat toasts (didn’t have white bread in the house), which had the sides removed (is that an Assumption thing or a 1960’s thing to remove the crusts to make these uniformly square and texturally blah pica-pica shapes?!) and put them in a little toaster oven. I watched as the cheese started bubbling up and removed the pieces when they were slightly brown. They were utterly delicious. So simple and so incredibly satisfying. And whoa! Talk about wicked calories. Frankly, I thought my version had almost too much butter if that is possible at all… And cut the squares into four…one whole piece was just too much to handle at one time. And I think this would taste better on a white bread or more like a rich brioche style butter bread. Yum, think of this concoction on a halved croissant…yikes…there goes the diet again! Thanks, Katrina, for throwing down the gauntlet on QdB toasts, I agree with you completely, more QdB is definitely BETTER! It is amazing how much confluence of food blogger ideas there was over the weekend…not only did I notice Joey of 80Breakfasts with a Bean Paste after I made my Patani Spread, I also saw a similar QdB post on The Scent of Green Bananas Blog as well…
This recipe above is a terrific way to use up leftover QdB from the holidays…another option is to make this cheese pimiento spread made with mayonnaise…
14 Responses
Thank you very much Marketman and Katrina. I would love to make this QdB toast it looks easy to do. If I go to the grocery – cheese section what brand of QdB do I get? in the Phils. it would have been easier for me to recognize the round cheese but here all I see are the sliced cheese . Is it the Edam cheese with the red thing on the outer portion. Katrina you mentioned Dulcinea, is it still open? I used to buy bolillos here and Spanish bread. Does anybody know how to make bolillos?
This is cool, thanks. I attempted one recently but not having read the previous post, it didn’t look and taste nearly as good as this one. Will attempt again surely. Oh, I think removing those crusts on the bread wasn’t just an Assumption thing. I had those crustless sandwiches in my lunchbox as well. Definitely a 60’s thing or perhaps way earlier.
One way to serve the qdb spread is to hollow out the queso de bola first, then grate the cheese for the spread. When mixed with the butter (and other spices or nuts), fold it back into the hollowed out qdb and then toast the top in an oven for a few minutes to get it all nice and brown. Serve with toast or crudites. Kind of like those 1950’s parties with the toasted cheese, but with a kick.
MM, I am honored! My lola would be so proud. :-) Yes, the QdB-to-butter ratio in “Quezo Reina,” which is what she called it, is very high. Unfortunately, my lola died without anyone learning her many delicious recipes, but I do know that she would ask my mom to buy one ball of QdB, then soon she’d send over a gold Selecta ice cream half-gallon can, only partly-filled with the Quezo Reina.
DivineG, yes, Dulcinea is very much around. I don’t know bolillos, unless you mean palillos (palillos de Milan, sometimes it’s called)? I like those a lot too.
Mila, what a fabulously retro idea! But I imagine just grating QdB takes quite a bit of upper body work; how do you hollow out such a hard ball of cheese, what do you use?
Speaking of Quezo de Bola and blog inspirations…Magnolia ice cream recently came out with a limited edition Quezo de Bola flavor (not sure if still available). It isn’t too different from the usual cheese ice cream, except it has lots of tiny QdB bits. Anyway, I was about to have some at my parents’ house the other day, when I saw my mom’s hoard (yes, she has taken to hoarding them, thanks to you, MM) of mangosteen jam. They went superbly together! I shared the discovery with my folks, and my dad said he can’t think of anything mangosteen jam WOULDN’T go well with. ;-)
This looks good! Will try this.
What we did one holiday was to cut the QdB into thin slices and put them in the microwave (until they turned bubbly). They actually tasted like very flavorful cheese potato chips! Yummy! (Expensive chips though)
thanks MM… this is definitely a keeper…
i’m bookmarking this for future kitchen use…
this looks really satisfying, and cheese plus bread is a great snack. . . melting that into croissant would be sinful hehehe calorie overload. . .
We do this at home but instead of white bread we use the good old pan de sal. I like mine a bit more brown. Even when it gets cold it’s still good. Burned my tongue when I was a small girl a lot of times but stil can’t get enough.
Can QdB be a good substitute for mozarella if you’re making a pizza?
uyster, I think QdB is a much harder/drier cheese so it might have a very different impact on the pizza versus the mozzarella, but I suppose it can’t hurt to try it…
This is my favorite, especially when I get strawberry jam straight from Baguio! And never mind the calories. :)
Can anyone confirm if real (Marca Piña or Pato) QdB is made from raw (unpasteurized) milk? I was just wondering why the Australian Edam cheeses taste so different from the Dutch Edam.
I’d like to share my dad’s favorite version of queso de bola toasties: Grate queso de bola & quickly cook in boiling oil. The grated bits will stick to each other & form “patties” of QDB. Don’t leave too long so it will be crispy (not chewy) & eat right away with hot pandesal! Yummy and easy to do!