Phyllo Crab Triangles

Crab triangles are easy to make, customizable, and make an impressive appetizer - whether as passed hors d'oeuvres or for a romantic dinner!

Originally Posted July 17, 2009. Updated 1/4/2021

A fun thing about suddenly having to rely on the blog for income is all of the long-forgotten posts you discover along the journey.

This blog has been around for over a decade at this point, and has morphed from basically just being an announcement platform for my cake business back then (“Here’s a new flavour I’ve put out”), to what it is now.

I didn’t pay attention to image sizing, or seo. I didn’t follow any best practices or anything, I just popped a recipe up so I could refer to it easily later.

Whoops!

The Original Crab Triangles Post

... and sometimes - like in the case of this recipe - that means a recipe with literally 2 sentences of description, and not so much as a single photo.

In the case of this recipe, this was the entirety of the description:

“This recipe ended is the result of warping my crab dip recipe, and deciding to bake it in phyllo dough to be fancier last new year's eve. Always a favourite!”

... This recipe what? That’s not even coherent. Whatever!

Updating the Crab Triangles Post

Anyway, this recipe has continued to be a favourite over the years, both in this original form, and in freestyling variations on it.

As NYE this year was an at-home affair, it seemed about time to reshoot it, and update the post!

So, some extra info to add, before getting to the base recipe:

Crab Triangles Variations

As I’d mentioned, there are a few ways we’ve played with this recipe over the years.

It’s very versatile - whatever you like with crab, you can use to flavour this! A few ideas:

Asian Inspired

Skip the smoked paprika and crushed chilies. Skip the red peppers, if you like.

Add 1 teaspoon sesame oil, and a splash of soy or ponzu sauce. Use a bit of sriracha, sambal oelek, or jeow sauce, to taste.

After folding and spreading the tops with butter, sprinkle sesame seeds on top.

Smoky Crab Triangles

Use a smoked cheese - mozzarella or gouda, usually - in the filling. (An ACTUAL smoked cheese, not “smoke flavoured”!)

Leave out the crushed chilies, add ¼ tsp+ smoked serrano powder, to taste.

Freezing These Crab Triangles

You can make these up to a few months ahead, and freeze them!

To do so: Assemble them right through brushing butter on, and arrange them on a lined baking sheet.

Freeze for about an hour.

Gently transfer the frozen crab triangles to a freezer bag.

Being careful to remove as much air as possible (I’ll usually push out most of it, then use a straw to suck the rest out!), seal the baggie(s).

Mark the bags with the date, and freeze until use.

How To Cook Frozen Crab Triangles

You can cook these after freezing in two ways:

1. Allow them to thaw completely, then follow the baking instructions in the recipe.

Or

2. Arrange them on a lined baking sheet and bake without thawing: 350 F, for about 30 minutes.

Anyway, on to my Crab Triangles recipe!

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5 from 4 votes

Crab Triangles

Crab triangles are easy to make, customizable, and make an impressive appetizer - whether as passed hors d'oeuvres or for a romantic dinner!

Prep Time20 minutes mins

Cook Time20 minutes mins

Total Time40 minutes mins

Course: Appetizer

Cuisine: Mediterranean

Servings: 10 People

Calories: 447kcal

Author: Marie Porter

Equipment

• 2 Baking Sheets
• Parchment Paper

Ingredients

Filling

• 2 cans Crab Meat Drained and picked through
• 8 oz Cream Cheese Softened
• ½ cup Roasted red pepper pieces Drained well
• 1 cup shredded cheese of choice Havarti, monterey jack, mozzarella, etc
• 4 Garlic cloves
• 4-5 Green Onions finely chopped
• ½ teaspoon Crushed Chilies
• ½ teaspoon Smoked Paprika
• Salt and pepper to taste

Assembly

• 1 package Phyllo dough completely thawed
• 1 cup butter melted

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 375 F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, set aside.
• Drain crab meat, place in a mixing bowl. PIck through and remove any bits of shell, if present.
• Add all filling ingredients - except crab and salt/pepper- to a food processor. Blitz until everything is chopped up, well combined, and smooth.
• Add cheese mixture to the bowl of crab, mix to combine. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
• Carefully separate 2 sheets of phyllo dough from the rest. This can be an infuriating process. Cover the remaining phyllo dough.
• Lay one sheet out flat on a work surface, lightly brush it with melted butter.
• Top it with the other sheet, then cut it into 5 equal widths (the shorter side of the long sheet becomes the length of the strips).
• Spoon a tablespoon or so of filling onto one end of a strip, then fold it up: fold the short edge to match up with the side (covering the filling), the fold that over so it matches up with the same side, etc - flag style.
• Repeat with remaining strips, then make a new set of strips. Continue till you run out of either dough or filling - which depends on how many sheets you destroyed in the process, and how generously you filled the triangles.
• Arrange triangles on a lightly greased baking sheet, and brush the tops with melted butter.
• Bake for 20 minutes, or until golden and flaky.

Video

Nutrition

Calories: 447kcal | Carbohydrates: 26g | Protein: 12g | Fat: 33g | Saturated Fat: 19g | Cholesterol: 96mg | Sodium: 831mg | Potassium: 161mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 1154IU | Vitamin C: 6mg | Calcium: 134mg | Iron: 2mg

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