I actually have an experiment gone right to share today…surprise! I catered my friend Kelly Treater’s bridal luncheon recently, and made these tasty garnishes for the salad…Parmesan Hearts.
The Recipe
The recipe is simple…freshly grated Parmesan cheese, black pepper, and the dried herbage of your choice. Giada from Food Network has a great recipe that inspired me (click here). The method was what tripped me up. If you’re doing free-form wafers, it’s simple enough to just drop a tablespoon of the cheese mixture into a loose mound atop a parchment (or silpat) lined baking sheet, then bake at 400 for 4-6 minutes.
The Reality
But if you’re like me and enjoy complicating your life, shaped wafers take a little more planning. I didn’t have any oven-proof heart-shaped cookie cutters to use as molds, so I had to play. Here are the ideas that didn’t work:
Plan A: “I’ll just make my own heart-shaped cookie cutter.” I used aluminum foil. It looked more like an actual biological heart than it did the curvy icon of cupid. A one-handed lobotomized monkey could have done better. Utter failure.
Plan B: “I’ll use this copper star cookie cutter I have and see if the method works.” Ummm…yeah. I didn’t. I dropped the cheese into a Pam-coated copper cookie cutter, and baked it. Pam my ASS. That cheese is STILL stuck that damn cookie cutter.
The Solution
I used my plastic heart cookie cutters as molds. I dropped the cheese into the cookie cutter, carefully spreading it out to fill the heart shape. I removed the mold, then used my fingers to exaggerate the heart shape so that when it spread out, it looked like a heart instead of a blob of cheese.
The Result
Crisp, delicious Parmesan heart wafers that pleased all ages… from twenty-something bridesmaids to eighty-something grandmothers-of-the bride. Success! These are great alongside a salad, or just for something different on a cheese tray. Speaking of…Matthew is going to be teaching us all how to do that soon!
PS:
I’m not trying to discriminate, but if you have Parkinson’s, Cerebral Palsy, Turette’s, or you just have the Shakes, do not attempt this method. One crazy shudder and it’s game over for your shaped wafers. I should know…they don’t call me Squirrel for nothin’… 
June 9, 2009 at 2:57 pm |
your creativity is unending. maybe i’ll make some for theomae’s bday celebration.
June 9, 2009 at 3:08 pm |
I loved snacking on all of the “failures”. Luckily for me no matter what shape they are in they taste GREAT!!
June 9, 2009 at 4:15 pm |
Love your blog. You are too funny! I am so glad your mom shared your link with me and I have added it to my favorites. Keep on cookin!
June 9, 2009 at 4:19 pm |
thanks, Cheryl! hopefully all the cookin’ won’t burn down the house!
June 9, 2009 at 4:24 pm |
I am so excited about this new blog!! The parmesean crisps were a definite hit and I have been craving them since the luncheon. I have had so many people ask for the recipe so thanks for posting it! Miss you and David!
June 9, 2009 at 4:41 pm |
you are so welcome, darling! we had so much fun…thanks for letting us be a part of it all!
June 10, 2009 at 6:54 pm |
sometimes when I cook I get turettes and Leigh makes the kids leave the room.
June 10, 2009 at 6:59 pm |
LOL…at least you don’t have it all the time like David…
November 3, 2009 at 7:16 am |
[...] 450 degrees for 10 minutes. Since I had some parmesan left over, I made some crackers that Josh had described on a previous post but without the cool heart shape. Ray and I both back for seconds. Sweetwater 420 bread [...]