Cheddar Cheese Puffs

For Christmas Eve this year I decided to make a huge pot of Minestrone soup and some finger foods to set around the coffee table. It certainly had a nice informal feel to it; each of us could grab a bowl of soup and park ourselves by the Christmas tree. I decided to try my hand at Cheddar Cheese Puffs and they turned out to be a delicious accompaniment to the soup. Perfect for dipping.

These cheese puffs were so easy to make. If you can boil water, you can make these incredibly addictive cheese puffs. It's actually the water in the dough that steams and creates air pockets while the puffs bake in the oven. The result is something like a popover without having to use a popover pan. When you serve these at the table, people will think you probably mastered fancy French cooking when all the while you know it was as simple as boiling water!

The recipe came from Simply Recipes. You can go on over here if you want the step by step pictures.

Ingredients

* 1 stick butter (8 Tbsp or 4 ounces)
* 1 cup water
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 cup all purpose flour
* 4 large eggs
* 1 cup (4 ounces) grated sharp cheddar cheese
* 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme (or rosemary)
* Freshly ground pepper

1 In a medium sized saucepan, add the water, butter, and salt, and bring to a boil over high heat.

2 Reduce the heat to medium and add the flour all at once. Stir rapidly. The mixture will form a dough ball that will pull away from the sides of the pan. It helps to use a wooden spoon to stir as the dough will be rather thick. Continue to cook for a couple minutes.

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3 Remove the pan from the heat and let cool for a couple of minutes. Stir so that the dough cools more evenly. You want the dough to be warm, just not so hot that when you start adding eggs they cook as they hit the dough. Add the eggs one at a time, stirring after each addition until the eggs are incorporated into the dough. (Do this part in a mixer if you want, or by hand with a wooden spoon.) The dough should become rather creamy.

4 Stir in the grated cheese, thyme, and a few grinds of pepper.

5 Preheat oven to 425°F. Spoon out small balls (about a heaping tablespoon) of the dough onto a Silpat or parchment lined baking sheet, with at least an inch separating the spoonfuls. Place in oven and cook for 10 minutes at 425°F. Lower heat to 350°F and cook for another 15-20 minutes, until puffed up and lightly golden.

Makes about 2 dozen.