Crispy Parmesan Cups

KLBoyle's Note:

I saw something similar to this on Behind the Bash with Giada D. and came up with these. They served mac and cheese in them but you could really serve anything in them that would taste good with crispy parmesan. An easy way to fancy up your appetizers! You will need 2 mini muffin pans for molding the cups. UPDATE: When I tried posting Zaar would not accept it because it only had 1 ingredient so I added the black pepper. Although it does not call for it, a small crack of black pepper on each crisp probably wouldn't be too bad. Thanks!

• Total Time: 6 mins
• Prep Time: 1 mins
• Cook Time: 5 mins

Ingredients:

Serves: 20

Yield: 20.0 cups

• 1 1/4 cups parmesan cheese, grated
• 1 pinch black pepper (optional)

Directions:

1. Heat a small non stick pan on the stove top over med. heat.
2. Place 1 tbs. cheese on a small pile, about the size of a quarter, cook until cheese melts and flip over (this is where you could add a small crack of ground pepper to the cheese if you like), continue cooking until they are light golden brown.
3. Place a mini muffin tin upside down on a flat surface.
4. Drape cheese over the "molds" of the pan and press down with a second inverted mini muffin tin.
5. Let cool and remove from molds.
6. You can trim off any excess cheese for a more uniform cup.

Reviews

[Debbwl]

These taste great! My crispy parmesan cups were filled with sautéed garlic spinach for a nice simple little appetizer. While these are easy to make it does take a few tries to get your technique down. I started with 1 tablespoon piled up to maintain the size of a quarter as directed which did not work at all, then took a tablespoon and spread out to about a one inch circle with much better results. Used a nonstick pan with medium heat for cooking and then had to work very quickly to try and mold as they started to cool almost before I could get them onto the mini muffin tin. Again they taste great just takes more practice and talent then I seem to have, no fault of the recipe. Thanks for the post.

[kiwidutch]

I wanted to like this recipe a LOT more.. first: the TASTE is GREAT, but ease of making is what got me. I can't seem to get these crispy no matter what I do. First attempt, non stick frypan, low heat, a block of nicely aged parmaganio, and a seasoned ( but apparently stupid) zaarchef, how hard can it be? My parmi melted nicely enough but wrinkled up unwillingly into a soft sticky and blindingly hot "mass" when I tried to remove it from the pan. ( non stick spatular) My not so asbestos fingers tried to ease it around the mini muffin pan ... resulting in semi-burned fingers and limited success. I tried twice and got slightly better with practice. I even tried putting the cheese over the upturned muffin pan and putting the while lot under the grill until bearly melted... that works wonderfully if you have the Exact amount of cheese.. too much and it's a half melted lump, too little and it melts into a thin stream and slips off everywhere. The IS a knack to this I am sure. I just don't have it. As you can see from my photos, crispy my cups were NOT! Still, they DID taste great, so PLEASE, if you are reading this review please just have a go because it's only MY rotten technique that got the better of me, I'm certain you CAN do it better. Please see my Rating system: 3 stars for a wonderful tasting recipe that I just was too stupid to master. This cook certainly can't blame her tools because heck, everything else IS beautifully clear and should be easy enough. Please, some one else make this yummy recipe and post a photo to show us how these "should" look. Don't let my miserable effort be the default photo for long. Thanks !!!