Bleu Cheese Gougeres

Continuing on with the party recipes...

I made a batch of Ina Garten's gougeres, except this time I used bleu cheese instead of the parmesan and gruyere combination in her cookbook. My thoughts? Interesting. The texture of the gougeres ended up coming out way creamier than the normally puffed up goodness. This is good and bad -- if you're expecting the classic puffy gougeres then skip this recipe and go with a harder cheese; if you like the creamy texture then you'll love these. On Jordan The Cheese Man's recommendation, I also used a creamy Italian gorgonzola cheese -- creamy enough to blend into the batter and just enough umpf to provide that bleu cheese flavor without it being totally and completely overpowering. I basically kept the recipe classic and just subbed out the cheeses. These came together super fast and are always perfect if you plan on serving cocktails for any party.

Bleu Cheese Gougeres
1 cup milk
1 stick unsalted butter
1 tsp kosher salt
1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper
pinch nutmeg
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 eggs
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup bleu cheese
1 egg beaten with 1 tsp water for egg wash

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line a baking sheet or two with parchment paper. Measure out all of your ingredients and set everything aside and close to you because you'll have to work quite quickly.

Heat the milk, butter, salt, pepper, and nutmeg in a saucepan over medium heat until milk scalds (this means, a very thin skin begins to develop on the top). Add the flour all at once and start mixing it vigorously with a wooden spoon until the mixture comes together. It'll look like a super thick, sticky mixture in between batter and dough. Continue to cook this mixture over low heat for about 2 minutes more. You'll notice it'll all come together in a large softball.

Dump this mixture directly in the bowl of the food processor while still quite hot. Immediately add the eggs and cheeses and pulse to combine until the dough is smooth and super thick. Spoon this mixture out into a pastry bag fitted with a large plain round tip (you can also use a simple gallon size plastic storage bag) if using. Pipe batter out in mounds 1 1/4 inch wide and 3/4 inches high onto the parchment paper-lined baking sheets. Conversely, you can just spoon out the batter onto the sheets if you don't have a bag.

Brush the tops of each gougere with the eggwash and pop in the oven. Cook about 15 minutes or until golden brown on the outside.

You can serve straight out of the oven or at room temperature.

Make Ahead Tip:
Honestly these are awesome about 15 min out of the oven, but you can make these ahead of time, bake, then pop back in a 350 degree oven for 2 min to reheat if you want that fresh out of the oven taste. Room temperature is great too!