Baked Jalapeno Poppers

Submitted by Cilantro in Canada

"My husband loves these so much that each fall we pick a bushel of jalapeno peppers, fill them and freeze them. In fact we had to buy a second freezer just to accommodate these peppers. This recipe is courtesy of Emeril Lagasse. If you like these hot, leave in some seeds or membranes. The original recipe calls for 1/2 teaspoon cumin but I do not like it so I leave it out."

 

• Ready In: 1hr
• Ingredients: 10
• Yields: 24 poppers
• Serves: 6

ingredients

• 12 fresh jalapeno peppers, halved lengthwise with stems and membranes removed
• 6 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1 1⁄2 cups grated mozzarella cheese or 1 1/2 cups monterey jack cheese
• 1⁄2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or to taste)
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 8 teaspoons Emeril's Original Essence (posted separately by others members)
• 1 cup breadcrumbs
• 1⁄2 cup flour
• sour cream, for serving

directions

1. Using your food processor, combine cream cheese, cheese, cumin (if using) and cayenne until well mixed.
2. In a separate bowl combine eggs, milk and 2 teaspoons of the Essence (or to taste).
3. In another dish, mix together the breadcrumbs and 4 teaspoons of the Essence (or to taste).
4. Using gloves, fill each pepper with about a tablespoon of filling depending on the size of the pepper. I find filling all the peppers first before moving on to the next step works best for me.
5. Dip each filled pepper into the flour, then into the egg mixture and finally into the breadcrumbs.
6. At this point the peppers can be frozen on cookie sheets. Just pop into the oven frozen when you need them.
7. Cook at 350°F for 30 minutes on a greased pan. Easy release foil or parchment paper works well too.
8. To cut down on the heat when eating, serve with sour cream.

Reviews

[David Hawkins]

Loved this, but when we made it we were out of cream cheese. Used Farmers cheese instead, which is a firm version of ricotta cheese. Quite tasty and I think we will keep this variation because I am not too much a fan of over sweet things anyway! I also happened to be short on Jalapeno peppers and used a few Anaheim's that I happened to have on hand. They were quite large and became a serving of one for any given person. Quite tasty and the difference in flavor was noticable.

 

[Hissy Hussy]

These were delicious with a nice texture despite being baked rather than fried. I did include the cumin because we like it and used panko breadcrumbs. Try adding a little seedless raspberry jam alongside the sour cream for dipping - yum. Be sure to use something to line the pan before freezing or they will stick.

 

[Debi9400]

Wow - some of these puppies were hothothot! And others just a bit of heat and full of flavour. The family really liked them obviously - devoured the entire platter. There's a little more labour to them than just filling the peppers with cream cheese and wrapping some bacon around them but I couldn't help wonder what some bacon around these would be like?