White Cheddar & Green Chile Gougères (Cheese Puffs)

[mrmikemgm]

This comes as a request just prior to chile season being in full swing. Due to the delicate balance of moisture in this recipe, it uses dried green chile not freshly roasted ones, but I'm curious to tinker with this to see results trying freshly roasted green chiles in this recipe.

This recipe makes 1.5 pounds of raw puff pastry dough ~= 1.5 cookie sheets of baked gougères (cheese puffs).

Pâte à Choux Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup whole milk (for a drier and deeper blonde pâte à choux, substitute an equal amount of water for the milk)
• 1/4 pound (1 stick) butter
• 4 grams (big pinch) sugar
• pinch salt
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 4 large eggs

Gougères Ingredients:

• All the Pâte à Choux from above
• 1.5 Tablespoons dried green chiles (X-Hot Hatch, jalapeño, or similar)
• 1/4 pound sharp white Cheddar, grated
• 1/4 pound gruyère, grated

Directions for Pâte à Choux:

1. In a large pot over medium heat and stirring CONSTANTLY bring the milk, water, butter, sugar, and salt to a boil.
2. Remove from the heat, add the flour all at once, and stir vigorously to combine.
3. Return the pan to medium heat and cook, stirring CONSTANTLY, until the mixture pulls away from the sides of the pan, about 3 minutes.
4. Transfer the mixture to the bowl of an electric mixer and beat briefly on medium speed with the paddle to cool slightly.
5. Add the eggs two at a time, beating until smooth after each addition.

Directions for Gougères:

1. To the still hot Pâte à Choux in the mixer add the dried chile and cheeses and mix until smooth.
2. Transfer to a pastry bag and pipe into domes ~1" in diameter.
3. Bake for 35 minutes at 350° F (325° F Convection) rotate at mid-point of baking.

[Tally]

Yup, that sounds good. Gonna try it

[David Parrish]

It's things like this that make me wish the DW wasn't such a low carb kinda girl.

[mrmikemgm]

I should have posted a disclaimer too... these are not "eat one and walk away" type things. Insanely addictive. I made 500 of them for an event we hosted last Spring along with wood fired pizzas and several other munchies.... pizzas and gougères were gone before they hit the actual serving plates... other munchies persisted throughout the night for grazers.