Day 27 of Kitchen Witchery- Jalapeno Poppers (Fried Pies)

Okay, fried pies is in parentheses because this started out as the fried pies recipe and it morphed into other things. The truth is, you can do a lot of tasty fillings in canned biscuits. My mother makes chocolate fried pies. I think she uses canned frosting as the filling. I supposed you could use cool whip and get fried cream pies. I've never tried it. But I think it could work.

This is the first time I photographed my cooking. I must say, it is rather annoying to constantly stop to take a picture. I worry that I may leave out a step. I forgot to photograph the cooking oil. Things would probably go much more smoothly if I had someone photographing me as I cook. But then we're back to heads peering into pots and hands sneaking off bits of goodies.

Jalapeno poppers require just four ingredients- canned biscuits, jalapenos, cheese, and cooking oil which I forgot to photograph.

Flatten the biscuits. I do this with my fingers. Here I'm showing you one flattened biscuit (right) and one just out of the can (upper left). Any brand of canned biscuits will do. If you want to make dough from scratch and roll it out that's fine, too. The canned biscuits are a time saver. Also, store bought pie crust and pastry crusts work too (NOT the graham cracker crusts in the pie pan. I mean the flat pie crust in the frozen food section, the kind that generally makes the top of the pie). The pie crust gives a thinner, flaky outside. Good if you prefer more filling and less bread.

When all the biscuits are flat, begin adding peppers and cheese. Don't overload on filling. Less is more. I know you think that is not enough. Don't add more. Think 'bites' not meal. The more stuffing you have, the harder it is to seal the edges.

You can use any type of cheese. I prefer to break off cheese sticks because that gives more melted goodness. I used shredded here because it was all I had.

After the filling is ready, press edges together and then press down the edges with a fork. This ensures a good seal. It has to be dough to dough edges. Not oozing out stuffing. If the edges aren't firmly closed then the biscuit will pop open in the grease.

I probably forgot to mention this- start heating the oil before you open the can of biscuits. The oil has plenty of time to heat up during prep. I use a low setting, I think I had the stove eye on 4. Fry one or two poppers at a time. Slowly ease them into the oil. Don't plop them in or hot grease will splatter everywhere. You will have to turn the poppers over so that both sides cook. When they are ready to be turned, they float to the top and the edges are brown. This only takes a few seconds.

Drain on paper towels to remove excess grease. See the really brown one? It got cooked very well as I was trying to photograph it. I serve mine with ranch dressing. I've also made pizza poppers- pepperoni, mushrooms, and cheese. If you're going to use meat, please fully cook the meat first. These do not stay in the oil long enough to completely cook the insides. The inside gets just warm enough for things to melt together.