Arancini are a traditional Sicilian street food. They are deep fried and served as a take-away meal. I have made baked arancini. They might not be traditional in the way they are made. But the taste is super authentic.
When I made arancini the first time, Corina mentioned that she had baked hers when she made them. As I moderate my comments, both Kathryn and Mary Frances had not seen Corina’s comment, nor had they seen each others’ asking if these could be baked. I am always up for a challenge, and decided to try and make baked arancini stuffed with cheese as part of a meal. On the Friday afternoon before I made these I went shopping with my friend Nadia. We were browsing the aisles for snack food and when I saw the vegetable crisps I decided to buy them to use for this recipe instead of making them. This was a short cut I was willing to take as I know how long it takes to form the arancini. The nice thing with baking them is that you don’t have to stand over a deep fryer and watch them or indeed fry them in batches. I loved the crunchy exterior and the gooey interior and would make these again for sure.
Baked Arancini Stuffed With Cheese
Ingredients
for the risotto
- 800 mls chicken stock
- 250 g arboria rice
- 2 g salt
- 8 saffron threads
- 30 g Parmesan cheese, grated
for the arancini
- 80 g mozzarella cheese (the one you use for pizzas)
- 2 egg whites
- 80 g crumbed vegetable crisps
Method
for the risotto
- Bring the stock to the boil in a sauce pan
- Add the rice, salt and saffron
- Bring back to the boil and cook for 15 minutes
- Remove from the heat and after 1 minute, beat in the Parmesan
- Set aside to cool completely
for the arancini
- Preheat the oven to 160° Celsius
- Wet your hands and using a serving spoon, scoop some rice into your palm
- Shape into a large ball and then press your thumb into the centre to make a hole
- Fill the hole with 10g of mozzarella and seal up and shape back into a ball
- Wet your hands and repeat until you have used up all the rice - I made 8
- Now beat the egg whites and dip one of the balls into the egg whites
- Place the rice ball into the crumbed vegetable crisps and coat completely
- Lightly compact the crisps with your hand and place the arancini into an oven proof dish
- Bake for 20 minutes
Click on the links for conversions and notes.
What I blogged:
- two years ago – Venison Braised in Amarula
- four years ago – Friday’s Food Quiz
I love your idea of using crisps instead of breadcrumbs – and thanks for mentioning me too.
The crisps made a much better covering that bread crumbs in my opinion! and the link love is only a pleasure 🙂
I like that it’s so chewy 🙂
Me too Marta 🙂
Oh, yum, Tandy – I love Arancini and baking them is a great alternative – I don’t like deep-frying much (sure I like deep-fried food, but prefer not to do it myself, besides better if baked), also love the idea of using vegetable crisps as the coating.
I am not a huge fan of deep drying or fried food so this was perfect for me 🙂
Scrumptious!
Have a super day Tandy.
🙂 Mandy xo
Thank you Mandy 🙂
Oh Wow! Your pics have made my mouth water. 🙂
That is the best compliment!
Wow, lovely ones, i think i’ll love this version of aranchini…
it’s must be less calories than the deep fried ones!
For sure it has less calories 🙂
The veggie crisp coating is genius. It’s given me an idea for a dish I haven’t made in years 😀
Cannot wait to see where the inspiration takes you 🙂
I made arrancini a few months ago for the first time, Tandy, and I was blown over by how delicious they were. It’s a wonderful idea to make them a little lighter. I love those veggie chips!
I could so make these over and over again as they are great the next day for lunch 🙂
Ooh I love this as I love crispy things like arancini but I dislike deep frying! Thanks Tandy! 😀
Hope you try these Lorraine 🙂
I’ve never had these before but they look fantastic! What a clever idea to bake them. Mmm. 🙂
Thank you Krista 🙂
I am always interested to read about new baked treats and love the fact that you have crushed vegetable crisps for the outer shell. Great idea.
Thanks BAM 🙂
Drooling over that oozing cheese! THese look awesome.
Thank you Joanne 🙂
I love the idea of baking them. I hate deep frying but when I tried baking churros they didn’t turn out nicely. Yours look great though so I will give them a bash 🙂 xx
I have never tried to make churros but I know my doughnuts did not bake as well as they fried 🙂
I’ve never baked them either – time to change that as they look amazing!
Thanks Tanya 🙂
I love arancini, but yours looks healthier so I can eat even more 😀
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
and they make a great Uni snack Uru 🙂
I saw these at an Italian restaurant and thought they looked so good. I didn’t order them and really wish I had. Of course, I love that these are baked and not fried 😀
I hope you give these a try Cindy 🙂
Hi Tandy, I tried my hand at these a few months ago with disappointing results, will try your version, they look much lighter.
Hope you try them again Cheri 🙂
Seems like baking worked incredibly well with these arancini! 🙂 I’m not a huge fan of frying, because of the mess/cleaning up etc, so I love it when things can be baked instead AND they turn out just as good! Love hwo you used vegetable crisps too- they look really crunchy and yummy!
Thanks Von, baking these was a winner!
Tandy these look great–at some stage i want to experiment & try them without the eggs. My sons really like it – however i have never tried them
Please let me know how they turn out Usha 🙂
Oh look at that gooey cheese coming out! Lipsmacking! 🙂
Julie
Gourmet Getaways
Thanks Julie 🙂
I can’t tell you how delicious this baked arancini looks! I would pop the whole batch in my mouth right now if I could! What gooey cheesy delicious. Tandy, you always provide recipes that I wouldn’t even see anywhere or or be aware of! Thanks you. And veggie chips are wonderful =)
Thank you for the compliment, and for the amazing comments. I hope you give these a try Laura 🙂
Tandy I have never made arancini, but yours look so good I must add this to my repertoire! Great recipe, thanks so much for sharing.
My pleasure, and hope you enjoy making them Lizzy 🙂
Ryan and I first had arancini on our honeymoon. He loved it, and now I can recreate it at home!
Hope it is as good as when you were on honeymoon Monet 🙂
This dish has everything that I’ve ever dreamed of! Mozzie cheese never goes wrong!
You are so right Sammie 🙂
interesting idea to bake the arancini, i’ve only ever made & eaten fried ones! i think i definitely need to give the baking method a go.. probably so much healthier without all the deep fried oil too! thanks for sharing the idea tandy.
My pleasure Thalia. I much preferred the baked ones 🙂
Tandy, I’m having trouble leaving comments the last couple of days on your blog – sorry if this one comes up twice! I adore arancini, and especially love that first cheesy photo – how nice that these are baked!
HI, hope the comment issue is sorted out. Only got this one once. The baking made them a nice healthy treat 🙂