Gougères

This week, the law school staff had a potluck lunch to celebrate fall break. Fried chicken was provided, and we were to bring appetizers, sides, and desserts. My contribution was a batch of cheese puffs (gougères, if you want to be fancy). I'm a little intimidated by bread doughs, so I was very proud of myself for how well they turned out. They were much better right out of the oven than they were the next day. I followed the recipe at this link very closely, since I wasn't really sure what I was doing (I won't reproduce the recipe here, since it is very long, and the linked website has some great tutorial pictures). The only alterations I made were to use extra-sharp cheddar instead of gruyere and chili powder plus a little black pepper instead of cayenne (I used closer to 1/4 teaspoon of the chili powder and just a dash of black pepper in place of the 1/8 teaspoon cayenne). I used my sweet stand mixer, but I think you could do this with a hand mixer or a food processor (especially one with a dough blade) just as well. My only other note is that I strongly recommend following the recipe's advice of getting all the ingredients prepped ahead of time, because the dough comes together very quickly.

This recipe was really great. The puffs are just beautiful when baked, and they look much fancier/more difficult to make than they were. They're very, very tasty -- a great salty snack, and airy enough that you don't feel guilty about eating a bunch.

Here is the recipe link, again: http://whatscookingamerica.net/Appetizers/Gougeres.htm