Baked Crab Puffs

In the past two days I’ve received three alerts on my phone from the National Weather Service for dust storm warnings. Not to mention the constant excessive heat warnings that are always administered. Why they even bother to establish those during the summer here in Phoenix is a mystery. Just now I found a (mostly) dead scorpion in my garage. Clearly I live in the desert and there’s no escaping that reality no matter how hard I sometimes try. I think one of the worst things about living in Arizona is the lack of fresh quality seafood. I LOVE seafood. I can’t even imagine how much more I would eat if I lived in a coastal region.

Anderson Seafoods recently sent me a care package full of seafood goodies which included some amazing crab meat. There was a lot of it and after using a good portion for some other recipes I had some still leftover. I decided that crab rangoons were going to be in my near future. However, I soon realized I had NO desire to deep fry anything and create a (literally) hot mess. So I needed to figure out how to make something similar to a crab rangoon but something that could be baked. After inspecting the ingredients I had on hand I realized I had one sheet of puff pastry laying in the freezer and would be perfect with the crab filling. So, here we are! Delectable crab puffs that make a fabulous appetizer.

I’m still clearly enjoying the KitchenAid 5-Speed Hand Blender!

How to make

Crab Puffs

Yield: 9 large puffs

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Delectable crab puffs that make a fabulous appetizer.

Ingredients

Dipping sauce:

• 1/2 cup rice vinegar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons ketchup
• 1 teaspoon red chile flakes
• 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon water
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1/2 cup pineapple chunks

Crab puffs:

• 2 tablespoons sour cream
• 4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 green onion, sliced
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon Sriracha
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 10 ounces crab meat
• 1 sheet puff pastry, defrosted

Directions

For the sauce:

1. In a small saucepan set over medium-high heat, whisk together the vinegar, brown sugar, ketchup, chili flakes, and 1/2 cup of the water. Combine the remaining 1 tablespoon of water with the cornstarch and whisk into the sauce. Bring to a boil then turn off the heat. Let cool.

For the crab puffs:

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Spray a standard muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray
2. In a medium bowl combine all the ingredients except the puff pastry, gently folding the crab in last.
3. Cut the puff pastry into 9 squares. Press each square into 9 holes of a muffin tin. Divide the crab mixture between the pastry cups. You can refrigerate the puffs for 1 day at this point before baking.
4. Bake for 20 minutes, or until golden.
5. While the crab puffs are baking add the pineapple to the sauce. Puree with an immersion blender. Serve with the warm crab puffs.

Recipe Notes

Filling adapted from Tracey's Culinary Adventures and sauce from Serious Eats

Course : Appetizer

Cuisine : American

Recipe by Tessa Arias

Author: Tessa Arias

I share trusted baking recipes your friends will LOVE alongside insights into the science of sweets. I'm a professionally trained chef, cookbook author, and cookie queen. I love to write about all things sweet, carb-y, and homemade. I live in Phoenix, Arizona (hence the blog name!)