These tangy, heart-shaped baked cheese crisps are the perfect addition to your Valentine's Day spread! Golden, crunchy, and packed with flavor, they're great for snacking, sprinkling over salads, or adding a festive touch to any dish. Best of all, they come together in just ten minutes!
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If you want to spice up a dish or impress your friends, these easy baked cheese crisps are the way to go! They’re not only a great snack, but they also add a perfect crunch to any dish. They’re delicious on salads, pasta, charcuterie boards, or even as a soup garnish.
We love bite-sized treats for little hands, especially when they are festive and fun! If you love creative finger foods, be sure to try our strawberry yogurt bites, cute kabobs for kids and cucumber bites!
👍 Why We Love these Cheese Crisps
Festive! Our heart-shaped cheese crisps make the perfect snack or salad topper for Valentine’s Day—or any time you want to share a little love!
Quick and simple- You can make these cheesy snacks with just three ingredients in just 10 minutes!
Customizable- Experiment with different types of cheese or adjust the seasoning to suit your taste. You can also get creative with the shapes of your cheese crisps—no need to stick to hearts!
Kid-friendly- These baked cheese crisps are the perfect bite-sized snack for little hands and a great dish for kids to help make!
🛒 Supplies
Notes on key ingredients and supplies are provided below. Please see the recipe card below for a full list of ingredients and quantities.
Equipment
- Baking sheet- Any large cookie sheet or baking tray will do!
- Parchment Paper- To prevent crisps from sticking! We think parchment paper does a better job than foil.
- Heart-shaped cookie cutter- We have this 12-piece heart cookie cutter set and used the medium heart that measures 2.6 x 2.44 x .98 inches to make 12 heart-shaped cheese crisps.
Ingredients
- Parmesan cheese- We recommend freshly grated parmesan over store-bought, pre-grated cheese, as the former tends to melt better. We used 1 cup of shredded cheese to make about 12 parmesan hearts.
- Paprika- Adds a pop of smokey flavor and a little color to our baked cheese hearts.
- Black pepper- Just a bit for added flavor and spice.
👨🏼🍳 Instructions
Step 1. Preheat oven to 400°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Step 2. Combine parmesan and seasoning in a medium-sized bowl.
Step 3. Fill a heart-shaped cookie cutter with the cheese mixture and repeat to create 10-12 heart-shapes made from cheese.
Step 4. Bake for 6 minutes or until baked cheese crisps are golden and crispy! Once cooled, remove from baking sheet and enjoy!
Kids Cooking Steps
- Shred the cheese! We love our Microplane grater and find it pretty easy to grip and use.
- Measure and mix! Invite kids to measure the seasoning and stir together with parmesan.
- Scoop cheese into heart cookie cutter. Let kids use their developing fine-motor skills to form the heart shapes!
🧀 Variations and Substitutions
Cheese- Feel free to experiment with different high-quality block cheeses, especially those that melt similarly to Parmesan, like Asiago or Romano. Shredded cheddar also works well, but it tends to spread more, so be sure to space your crisps out properly on the baking sheet.
Seasoning- Give these cheese crisps a flavor boost by adding a pinch (or two!) of extra seasoning. Try options like Everything Bagel Seasoning, dried herbs (such as thyme or rosemary, or red pepper flakes and cayenne for a kick of heat.
✔️ Expert Tips and Tricks
- Taste the cheese mixture before shaping your cheese crisps into hearts—you might want to adjust the seasoning to your liking.
- Spread cheese hearts out on the baking sheet. The parmesan hearts will expand as they bake, so be sure to keep at least an inch between each cheese crisp.
- If your cheese hearts seem clumpy, use the flat side of a spoon to gently flatten and even them out before baking.
- When spooning the cheese into the heart shape, tidy up any excess around the edges to keep the crisps' heart shape intact.
- Watch your oven closely while cheese hearts bake, as every oven is different. They can burn quickly if left too long, and the crisps will taste bitter.
- Make cheese crisps in batches if you run out of room on your baking sheet and/or choose to spread out your cheese hearts generously.
🍽️ How to Serve Baked Cheese Crisps
These cheese crisps make excellent "crackers" on a charcuterie/ cheese board, alongside a veggie tray or in your child's lunchbox! They also make wonderful garnishes for some of the following:
- Soups- Place a few cheese crisp hearts on top of creamy soups, like our tomato soup, lasagna soup , sausage orzo soup, or potato leek soup!
- Salads- Our cheese crisps add the perfect crunch to caesar salads, pasta salads and more!
- Pasta-Toss crisps on your favorite pasta dishes, especially ones with creamy or tomato-based sauces, like this chicken sausage pasta, turkey spaghetti or pesto gnocchi.
❓FAQ
We recommend grating Parmesan at home from a block, as it melts more evenly and creates a smoother texture. Pre-grated cheese often contains anti-caking additives, which can cause it to become clumpy when melted.
Store cheese crisps in an air-tight container, at room temperature for 2-3 week. Cheese crisps will remain their crispiest for 2-3 days.
❤️ Other Valentine's Day Treats
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💛 Heart-Shaped Baked Cheese Crisps
Equipment
- 1 baking sheet
Ingredients
- 1 cup shredded parmesan cheese
- ¼ teaspoon paprika
- ⅛ teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Combine parmesan and seasonings in a medium-sized bowl.
- Use a spoon to fill the heart-shaped cookie cutter with the cheese mixture and repeat to create 10-12 heart-shapes made from the cheese.
- Bake in the center rack for 6 minutes or until cheese hearts are golden and crispy! Once cooled, remove from baking sheet and enjoy!
Notes
- Taste the cheese mixture before shaping your cheese crisps into hearts—you might want to adjust the seasoning to your liking.
- Spread cheese hearts out on the baking sheet. The parmesan hearts will expand as they bake, so be sure to keep at least an inch between each cheese crisp.
- If your cheese hearts seem clumpy, use the flat side of a spoon to gently flatten and even them out before baking.
- When spooning the cheese into the heart shape, tidy up any excess around the edges to keep the crisps' heart shape intact.
- Watch your oven closely while cheese hearts bake, as every oven is different. They can burn quickly if left too long, and the crisps will taste bitter.
- Make cheese crisps in batches if you run out of room on your baking sheet and/or choose to spread out your cheese hearts generously.
Nutrition
*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet. While we are not certified nutritionists, we work with a Wordpress-integrated nutrition API to calculate our recipes' ingredient values.
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