A Good Party Cocktail Snack

I made these as a Sunday cocktail snack and they were a winner, only problem was that the two of us ate them all and that is a brick of cream cheese between us so it is best to make them for a party.  Original recipe called for 3 cups of breadcrumbs but I only used one cup of Panko.  I tried them three ways, light coating (lightly rolling them in the crumbs, just enough to handle), medium coating (rolling them a couple of times and pushing in the crumbs slightly) and a heavy coating which was pushing the crumbs into the cheese and manipulating it till they were firm) and I can’t imagine how you would use 3 cups especially since light to medium coatings were best.  They are also best warm.  I accidentally only used 1 C. of Parmesan so I need to give 2 cups a try next time and use all of the jalapenos 2 vs 1 ½ which equaled the 4T.  Original recipe came from Trisha Yearwood's show on Food Network.  I will make these again.

JALAPEÑO BITES
8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened
8 oz. (2 C.) Parmesan, grated
2 (4 T.) jalapeño peppers, seeded and minced
1 egg, beaten
1 C. panko breadcrumbs

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Remove cream cheese from refrigerator to soften slightly, grate Parmesan and mix both with minced jalapenos and egg.  Put a cup of breadcrumbs on a plate, using a 1 oz. scoop, drop balls of mixture into breadcrumbs and roll, covering cheese mixture with crumbs.  Gently press some breadcrumbs into ball but not too much (see note).  Place on a cookie sheet, lined with a silicon pad if you have one and bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.  Serve warm.  Makes 23 bites.

Note:  The first batch I lightly rolled in breadcrumbs and they were good, the second batch I pushed more bread crumbs into the balls and they were better/crunchier, the third batch I really worked the breadcrumbs into the wet cheese balls and that was too much.  The cheese and jalapenos’s disappeared and all I had was bread crumb balls.  Go with a light to medium coating.  These are soft, not hard bites.