Crispy ‘taters are my favorite! I like that good crunch on the outside and soft potatoes on the inside. But I’m not going to lie, I haven’t made this recipe yet. I just so happened to be looking for some different appetizers for the upcoming holidays and ran across this gem. This looks like it could become a staple appetizer in my recipe binder. Yes, I have a recipe binder. Though I do a lot of online research for recipes, I still write them out on a piece of paper and add it to my binder. But only if it is an absolute favorite of mine. Have you ever bought or received a cookbook only to like 10 recipes out of 100? Yeah, I thought so. This binder will not be like that, guaranteed.
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons butter, melted
- 2 large russet potatoes, peeled
- 1/2 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 pinch cayenne pepper (Or to taste. It’s optional, in my opinion.)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup finely grated parmesan cheese
- Mini muffin pans (2 of them.)
Preparation
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
- Set tins on baking sheet. (This helps to distribute the heat evenly, or so I’m told.)
- Add cold water to a large bowl until 1/3 full.
- Grate potatoes into the cold water, then fill the bowl almost to the top with more cold water. Swish the potatoes around with your hands to rinse off the starch, then pour off most of the water and refill with more cold water. Continue this process until the water runs almost clear.
- Pour potatoes into a colander and let drain for a few minutes.
- Transfer grated potatoes to a clean kitchen towel. Wrap potatoes in the towel and squeeze over a bowl until no more liquid comes out.
- Transfer potatoes to a clean bowl and add garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, cayenne, and olive oil.
- Sprinkle flour over top, then add the parmesan cheese. (Please add the ingredients in that order over the potatoes. This will help keep the parmesan cheese from clumping.)
- Mix and toss gently with your hands until thoroughly combined and mixture feels damp.
- Brush melted butter generously in each muffin round. Don’t be stingy with this step. Melt more butter if you have to. You want to brush the sides and have a good layer on the bottom. this will give it that caramelized crust.
- Grab potato mixture from the bottom of the bowl to get as much moisture as possible, (so that they cook evenly), and fill the prepared muffin cups. It’s okay if the mixture comes up above the pan by 1/2 to 1 inch.
- Bake in the center of the preheated oven until golden brown on top, caramelized on the bottom, and crispy all over, 40 to 45 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and let sit in the pan for 5 minutes before flipping them over onto the baking sheet.
Now, if you see that some of the bottoms are lighter than the others, it’s okay. Just pick out the lighter ones and place them back in the muffin pan and into the oven for another couple of minutes. It’s called common sense, something this country is sorely lacking.
You can top these with some sour cream, chives, bacon pieces, whatever your tender heart desires. I hope you enjoy!
Total Prep and Cook Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
Yields: 24 poppers
Serves: 6 people (Or just me because I seriously think I could eat all of them myself.)
For those of you counting calories, I’ll list it this one time: 204 calories per serving.
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