Jalapeno Popper Dip

Whenever I need to make something to take to a party or fellowship, I can always count on Robin Sue. Even if the recipes are not original with her, she makes the best dishes~ ALWAYS.

A few Sundays past I made this dip which I found on her site. What a hit it was! I made it with a few adjustments. There was none left to bring home. I made it again today, a snowy cold day with all the children home. It warmed them in no time.

I served this with corn chips before; it was a terrific match. Today we were all out and since we were staying put, I used what we had~ bread. To make extra special dippers, I cut out star shapes with a cookie cutter and toasted them in the oven for 5 minutes on 450 degrees {flipping once during toasting}.



I used to feel guilty about cutting out bread shapes because I never used them. I know many of you probably are extremely organized and frugal, so you make your own breadcrumbs or something like that. Not I. But I did decide that they were perfect for bread pudding.

Jalapeno Popper Dip
Ingredients
2~ 8oz. packages cream cheese
1/2 c. mayonnaise
1 c. shredded cheese, colby-jack mix
1/2 c. shredded Parmesan cheese
1~ 8oz. can chopped green chilies
1~ 4oz. can chopped jalapenos, drained

1 c. panko bread crumbs
1/2 c. shredded Parmesan cheese

Directions
1. Cut cream cheese into cubes and microwave in a microwave safe dish for 30 seconds to soften.



2. Place cream cheese, mayo, colby~jack cheese, 1/2 cup Parmesan, chilies and jalapenos in a large bowl. Using a fork, mix thoroughly. I decided to change this step to hand mixing for two reasons. First, I hate cleaning the food processor unless I will use it for tasks that I find fairly time consuming or difficult to do by hand. Second, you need to burn off some of the calories you will be eating once the dip is done!


 
This is where the heat comes from, the jalapeno seeds, not the jalapenos themselves.  No seeds, no heat.

3. Using a rubber spatula, spread mixture into a deep dish pie plate or a small casserole dish.

4. Mix the bread crumbs and 1/2 cup of Parmesan in a small bowl. Sprinkle over the cream cheese mixture. Again, I changed the recipe here. The original one called for half a stick of butter. The dip is already very rich with all of the cheese and the mayo {which I also cut back from 1 cup}. The butter does help the bread crumbs to turn a beautiful golden color, but I found the Parmesan does that nicely.

Panko bread crumbs are just a bit more coarse and unseasoned. Most stores carry them now, but I still like to get ours at the Asian markets.

5. Bake the dip in a 375 degree oven for 20-25 minutes. Enjoy!