Ok guys...I'm patting myself on the back for this one. Do you ever have one of those recipes where literally all you do is throw together ingredients that are on the verge of going bad, and instead of it being a dreadful concoction it turns into one of your new favorite recipes? Well...this has just happened to me. So much that I'm pretty sure these will be on my list of Super Bowl snacks this weekend. So. Much. Yum.
Let me start by saying that I am slightly a food hoarder. By that I mean I LOVE when my fridge is full, particularly of fresh ingredients, so that I can let my inspiration go wild on what to make for dinner. However, that also leads to many last-minute scrambles where I try and use everything up before it goes bad, which is exactly the mess I was in when I made what I'm calling cheese poppers.
It started out with a few cheeses we'd bought a couple weeks ago for a wine and cheese night...cheddar, Camembert, and goat cheese. Although I loved each of these little cheeses dearly when we bought them, there are only so many wine and cheese nights for two you can have before you are ready for a change. So, I decided that I would somehow combine them with some canned biscuit dough (also about to go bad!) and see what I could come up with. I had very low expectations for myself but was soon to be pleasantly surprised!
I decided to keep each of the cheeses separate since they had such strong flavors and would simply add some complimentary flavors to add volume. To the cheddar I added a little grated parmesan, to the Camembert I added strawberry jelly, and to the goat cheese I added roasted pineapple and habanero sauce.
WHICH...let me digress...was a Christmas gift from one of my co-workers, and has become my newest condiment addiction. The texture is almost like a salsa, but the flavor is out of this world...the pineapple gives it sweetness with a spicy kick from the habanero. I promise it will be featured in many a future recipe!
But back to my cheeses...to each mixture I also added a couple tablespoons of flour so it would bind a little better. I zapped the cheddar and Camembert in the microwave for about 30 seconds so they would soften, and stirred the mixtures together until they were all fully combined. At this point in my recipe I was still a bit unsure of how good these would be but kept going....
Once I had halved each biscuit onto a sheet of waxed paper, I spooned a heaping tablespoon of the cheese mixture onto each one, and then proceeded to simply pick them up and put them in a greased muffin tin.
I put them in a 375 degree oven for 12 minutes and they came out looking golden and gooey...I was starting to get excited about this recipe since they smelled so good...they just had to taste good too!
And they did not disappoint!! My favorite was the goat cheese popper because when cooked it almost reminded me of cheesecake but with a little bit of a habanero kick! Andrew liked the cheddar one the best and suggested maybe adding some roasted garlic next time (GREAT idea, hubby!). Next time I'd probably also use a crescent roll or maybe puff pastry since the biscuit was a teeny bit heavy, but when you're looking for a great and easy recipe for a crowd, this fits the bill!
Until next time cheese poppers...
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