Cranberry and Crab Meat Appetizers

Every year for my family Christmas parties I try to make a new recipe, mostly because I subscribe to the philosophy that if you're going to experiment, you should do it when a larger number of people than normal have to eat what you've made. That way you get to know if it's good, but if it's awful then you aren't stuck with a huge quantity of something. This one surprised me in a really good way, and while I won't be making it often (it's a little spendy), I will definitely be making it again.

As always, when a recipe is not mine I'm stating that right up front. This one comes from GroupRecipes.com, and I thank them (and Kytigger, the chef who posted it) kindly!

I doubled the batch, because the recipe makes 15 and I was serving 12. So two boxes of mini phyllo cups and double all the rest of the ingredients. I wasn't sure how much crab a 6 1/2 ounce can was going to actually give me, but it was plenty. I also used 1/3-less-fat cream cheese, and it worked just fine (and also cut the calories by 20 and the total fat by half).

Here is where I discovered the disadvantage in buying store brand over national brand: Berries. The can was quite clearly labeled whole berry cranberry sauce, but I found maybe three berries in the entire thing. On the other hand, that made it a lot easier to beat it with a fork until it was smooth, so there's that.

Couldn't be simpler! Just mix the cream cheese, crab, and green onion together. I have to admit I didn't really pay attention to how much I was supposed to use, so I ended up using the entire 8 ounce block of cream cheese and however much green onion a bunch made when sliced. The best part was that left me a LOT of the crab mixture left after I filled the shells, and of course I had a bunch of cranberry sauce left as well. I spread the filling on toasted English muffins, then broiled, then topped with cranberry sauce for lunch three different days, and it was fabulous.

But I digress. Once everything is mixed, fill the shells with crab mixture and then top with a dollop of cranberry sauce. The problem with that is I don't own a mini muffin tin with that many cups, so I had to put them on a cookie sheet. They fit on a standard size sheet, as you can see, but I had to avoid any sudden movements or they slid off. Luckily, I found that out before I filled them, but next time I'll use a cookie sheet with sides to help avoid that problem. At any rate, into the oven for just 10 minutes they went.

They really didn't look that different when they came out, which means I did it right. The shells had crisped nicely, the crab mixture was warmed through, and the cranberry sauce had just started to form a slight skin. These were amazing! I made 30 of them and served them at a party for 8 adults and 4 kids at which there was a TON of other food, and I only had about a half dozen left.

If you have some left, let me give you a word of advice. Do NOT microwave them to warm them up again! The shells come out soggy, and the cranberry sauce turns into molten lava after just 30 seconds. Instead, either eat them cold (which really isn't bad at all), or stick them under the broiler or in a toaster oven for a couple of minutes.

Cranberry Crab Meat and Cream Cheese Appetizers

Serves 15

Ingredients
1/2 cup Ocean Spray® whole berry cranberry sauce
1/3 cup cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup minced crab meat
2 tablespoons green onion, white and green parts, sliced
15 individual mini-phyllo shells, thawed

Serving Size: 28g

Calories: 93

Calories from Fat: 39

Total Fat: 4.3g

Saturated Fat: 1.6g

Trans Fat: 0.0g

Cholesterol: 6mg

Sodium: 55mg

Total Carbohydrates: 11.5g

Sugars: 3.0g

Protein: 1.5g

Again, not my recipe. This was posted at GroupRecipes.com by Kytigger.