“Overcooked” cheese has epic CRUNCH!!!
Use these as a dip chip (they taste really good with sour cream and chives) or just as nibbles on their own.
Ingredients
- 3-4 slices of any pre-sliced real cheese or about 6-8 heaping teaspoons of grated Parmesan
- Each cheese gives differing taste, I find Gouda and Leerdammer give the best crunch, but Edam and Cheddar works well also. Parmesan is very salty and rich and the smoked cheeses go puffy rather than crunchy, which is odd but very good.
- A circular non-stick silicon baking mat liner sheet (round, square)
(If you do not have a liner, you sort of cannot make these – they have a tendency to stick and it takes lots of get it off the glass of the turntable or baking sheet)
Method 1 – Microwave
Cut each slice into quarters – A whole slice is too big to get hard in the middle.
Put the mat on the Microwave turntable and lay out the quarters onto it, with a little space in between for melting.
If using grated Parmesan, flatten out little piles of cheese to the size that you want the crisps, leaving space around each pile – a heaping teaspoon is a good amount.
With the microwave on high, cook for around 2-4 minutes, until they are all golden & bubbly.
Do watch them, they can burn relatively quickly
You can usually hear when they are done, they stop hissing.
Carefully slide the liner out of the microwave and onto a plate – it will be hot and fatty.
Allow the crisps to cool slightly / harden up before removing them from the liner.
NB: Be aware that the microwave turntable will get very hot, so be careful when removing the liner from the microwave.
Also, this leaves cheese fat in your microwave – clean this up with a paper towel whilst still warm (i.e. ASAP), otherwise it gathers and gets very cheese-smelly as you continue to use the microwave!
Method 2 – Oven
Lay out cheese as above on the mat, leaving a little more expansion space around each chip.
Put in a very hot oven for 3-5 mins until lacy, brown and crispy, as above
(Probably best to do it this after cooking other things, heating the oven up for just these is rather energy wasteful.)