Cheese Puffs

Cheese puffs are just one of several familiar pastries that rely on choux pastry (pâte à choux). Once you get this pastry down, you’ll be on your way to a whole parade of goodies – eclairs, cream puffs, an expended repertoire of cheese puffs. And while extolling the virtues of choux pastry, let me not forget the thank The Chopping Block for this recipe.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup water
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar
1 stick unsalted butter
1 cup all-purpose flour
5 eggs
1-1/2 cups grated Gruyere cheese,
1 teaspoon dry mustard (optional)

DIRECTIONS

Preheat your oven to 400 deg F.
In a heavy saucepan, combine the water, salt, sugar, and butter. Bring it to a boil.
Add the flour, all at once, mixing constantly until a thick paste is formed, and thedough follows the spoon around the pan. A thin film on the bottom of the pan is OK. Keep stirring for another minute to develop the gluten.
Remove from the heat, and transfer the dough to a mixing bowl, preferable a stand mixer. Allow the mixture to cool to 125 deg F (you don’t want to cook the eggs you’re going to add).
With the mixer on medium, beat in the eggs, one at a time. The dough will appear curdled, but by the time the last egg is added, it should be smoothed out.
Once you have a smooth dough, add the cheese and mustard. The dough will still be warm.
While the dough is still warm, scoop or pipe onto parchment-lined sheet trays, leaving 2″ between.
Bake until very brown and crisp, 20-25 minutes.
Best served warm, or soon after.