From Dip to Hors d'œuvre

It just so happened that a couple of days after making Artichoke and Goat Cheese dip for the Oscar party, my brother-in-law and sister-in-law were in town and we had a semi-impromptu gathering in their honor. I had left-over dip and it would have been super easy to serve the dip again with crackers and bread, but I was feeling creative. I had a notion that the dip would also make a good filling for a hot hors d'œuvre.

I bought some phyllo dough at the store and defrosted a roll overnight in the fridge. I’d never really worked with phyllo dough before, but I felt a little adventurous and figured I’d improvise my way through creating a vague representation of what I had in mind. I unrolled the dough and cut it into squares.

You’re supposed to keep it moist by keeping any dough you’re not immediately working with under plastic wrap, and then layering a damp cloth over it. I accidentally splashed water over half of it, turning the lovely delicately sheeted dough into mush. Oh, well, I wasn’t going to use them all anyways.

Once the dough was cut into squares, I took a stack of a few sheets at a time (4-5) and brushed the top with little bit of melted butter.

Then I spooned a little bit of the goat cheese mixture in the middle. Then I simply gathered up the sides around the middle to create a little cup. (But make whatever shape you want. I left the cups open, but you could close them up to make little bundles, or fold them over to create pockets.) I then brushed a little more butter around the sides to help them turn golden in the oven. Once I had all the cups made and lined up, I placed them on cookies sheets and baked them in the oven at 350, for 25 to 30 minutes, or until golden.

I must admit, not a bad first attempt. If the whole phyllo dough thing sounds too complicated, I also saw that Pilsburry makes a puff pasty dough especially for this type of use. I saw cans of this in the refrigerator section of the grocery store, in same area where you find the cans of pre-made biscuits and cinnamon rolls. As another alternative, if you have a restaurant supply store near you (there is an awesome one in Culver City called Surfas) they might carry pre-made hors d'œuvre shells. You could simply spoon in the dip and serve hot or cold.

I had another party come up this past weekend. A pot luck this time - or PoT LoVE, as my friend Kim’s yearly tradition is called. I’d had a rather crazy week, so I wasn’t up to attacking a new recipe, and figured I’d give the Artichoke Goat Cheese Baskets another go. I considered trying a sun-dried tomato version, but when I went to get started early last Saturday morning, the jar of sun-dried tomatoes proved difficult to open and I gave up five seconds later, returning to the easy to open can of artichokes with a trusty can opener. Even so, I have no doubt this would have been a delicious variation.

I can, however, tell you that the prepped, unbaked cups do travel decently well. I put the cups on sheets of foil and stacked them gently in a larger tupperware container and kept them refrigerated until it was time to go. I would just say to make sure to brush the bottom of the cups with butter to keep them from sticking. Upon arrival to the party, I commandeered the gracious host’s oven and baked up the cups right away.

One batch of artichoke and goat cheese dip is just about the right amount for one roll of phyllo dough. This yielded approx 25 cups.

As a final note, I have to admit that I wanted to tweak the consistency of the filling a bit, and I still haven’t quite got it right for the cups. Ideally, I’m aiming at a consistency in between the two versions I described in my previous post. Smooth and creamy, but a tad more firm and dry so that it’s able to get that nice baked goat cheese gold on top. I’ll keep you posted of future attempts.