Inside the flaky golden crust, there's a sweet crabmeat, cream cheese, and celery filling. On top, there's a quickie cranberry & sweet onion marmalade (made with whole berry cranberry sauce!) that comes together in 15 minutes.
The golden crust of these appealing little appetizers is made with refrigerated pie dough sheets. You just cut circles from the dough, press the circles into mini muffin cups, and they're ready to fill and bake.
These apps are tasty served hot, warm, or at room temperature.
(View the Full Size Photo of Cranberry Onion Crab Cups)
Prep Time: 45 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour
Yield: 48 Appetizers
Ingredients:
- 3 refrigerated rolled pie crust sheets (see Cook's Notes)
- 1 can (14 oz) whole berry cranberry sauce
- 1/2 cup very finely chopped sweet onion
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1/8 tsp ground white pepper
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (or pecans)
- Pinch of salt
- 8 oz cream cheese, softened
- 6 oz crabmeat (flake or claw meat is fine)
- 1/2 cup very finely chopped celery
- 1 Tbsp finely chopped parsley
- 1/4 tsp ground white pepper
- Additional finely chopped parsley or lemon zest for garnish (optional)
- Equipment: 4 -- 12 cup mini muffin pans (or equivalent)
Preparation:
While waiting for the pie crusts to come to room temperature, make the cranberry-onion marmalade.
In a saucepan, combine the whole berry cranberry sauce, chopped onion, ground coriander, and the white pepper. Heat just to bubbling over medium heat, stirring often.
Reduce the heat to low and simmer, stirring often, for 15 minutes, or until the cranberry sauce has re-thickened (it will thicken further while cooling)
Stir in the walnuts and allow to cool off the heat for 5 minutes or so before tasting. Add a small pinch of salt and taste again. Add a pinch more if needed (you want just enough to accent the sweetness and brighten the flavors.
In a bowl, combine the cream cheese, crabmeat, chopped celery, parsley, and white pepper. Mix gently but thoroughly with a spatula or spoon.
Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Lightly coat the cups of mini-muffin pans with cooking spray. Unroll the pie crusts and cut out 2 1/2 inch circles of dough using a biscuit cutter or drinking glass. Each pie crust should yield at least 16 circles of dough.
Gently press the dough circles into the mini muffin cups, making sure to press out any air pockets in the bottom.
Fill each cup with a slightly rounded teaspoon of crab-celery filling. Top each with about 1/2 of a teaspoon of the the cranberry-onion marmalade.
Place the mini muffin pans on the center rack of the oven and bake for 14-16 minutes until the edges of the pie dough are golden.
Remove the crab cups from the pans and allow them to cool on a wire rack. Serve hot or at room temperature.
Makes 48 servings of Cranberry Onion Crab Cups
Cook's Notes:- Refrigerated rolled pie crusts can be found in the supermarket with the refrigerated biscuits. They are a great timesaver and can also be used for making seafood pies and turnovers, such as these Shrimp & Feta Hand Pies.
- Each 15 ounce box has two rolls of pie crust, so you'll need one and a half boxes for this recipe.
- Remember to allow the pie crust rolls to come to room temperature and handle them carefully when unrolling them, as they are apt to tear, especially if they are still cold.