Pimento Cheese Gougeres

 

This recipe is from Food Network, link HERE. I am thinking of making it part of my Christmas traditions, but I need to make it first and I just bought the pimentos. 

 

Ingredients

 

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup whole milk

1 stick unsalted butter

salt

1/4 teaspoon paprika

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/4 teaspoon onion powder

1 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup finely chopped pimentos, blotted dry

4 large eggs

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese 

 

Process

 

 1. Combine the water, milk, butter, 1/2 teaspoon salt, the paprika, cayenne, and onion powder in a medium saucepan and cook over medium heat until the butter is melted and the mixture is shimmering, about 2 minutes. 

 

2. Stir in the flour and chopped pimento with a wooden spoon to form a dough, 2 to 3 minutes. 

 

3. Transfer the dough to a bowl and using a mixer on medium-high speed, beat in the eggs one at a time. 

 

4. Beat in the cheese and let the dough cool slightly. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 

 

5. Scoop the dough ubti a oiping bag fitted wiht a large tip. Pipe 1-inch mounds of dough (roughly 24 to 30), about 1 & 1/2 inches apart onto the baking sheet. 

 

6. Bake the gougeres until they are browned and puffed, roughly 25 to 30 minutes. Serve warm.  

Pastry Puffs

 

This is a good old easy recipe from EVERYDAY FOOD, the old booklet by Martha Stewart.  You can probably also turn these into cream puffs using the recipe HERE. 

 

Yield = 110 small puffs

 

Ingredients

 

1 cup water

2 stick unsalted butter

1 teaspoon sugar 

1 cup all purpose flour, spooned and leveled 

4 large eggs 

 

 

Process

 

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. 

 

2. Line 2 rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. 

 

3. In a small saucepan, bring 1 cup water, 1 stick unsalted butter, and 1 teaspoon sugar to a boil over high heat.  

 

4. Immediately remove from heat and stir with a wooden spoon. 

 

5. Stir in 1 cup all purpose flour . 

 

6. Continue to stir until mixture pulls away from the sides of the pan, about 2 minutes. 

 

7. Let cool 2 minutes. 

 

8.  Add four large eggs, one at a time, mixing after each addition until the batter comes together. 

 

9. Transfer batter to a large zip top bag so that the batter is in one corner. 

 

* your can also use a pastry bag with a 1/2 inch round plain tip. * 

 

10. With scissors, snip 1/2 inch opening in the corner .

 

11. Pipe batter into desired size mounds, 1 inch apart on the sheets. 

 

12. With a wet finger, smooth any pointy tops.  

 

13. Bake 10 minutes. 

 

14. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees and bake until puffs are golden brown and feel light and hollow inside, roughly 20 to 30 minutes. 

 

15. Let cool on sheets on a wire rack. 

 

Enjoy! 

 

Famous Chocolate Wafer Cookies - a la Nabisco

 

I'm honestly not sure where this recipe came from, perhaps Cooks Illustrated?, as it is ripped from the pages of some magazine.  One thing I do know, is that I have fond memories of these from my childhood as Hi-Ho would cook with them all the time. While these weren't necessarily kept in the cookie jar, it was one of my favorite after school snacks. I would settle down with a little pile of these and a small juice glass full of milk and would dunk these cookies in, give them a little time to absorb the milk, and then  eat the delectable moist crumbly cookie. The best part? At the end, the milk was a special kind of chocolate milk to drink! Yum!

 

Ingredients

 

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup dark cocoa powder (Hershey's special Dark is recommended)

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon table salt

1 & 1/4 cup confectioners sugar

3 Tablespoons water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

5 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted 

 

Process 

 

1. Whisk flour,  cocoa, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl until combined. 

 

2. In a second bowl, combine sugar, water, and vanilla and whisk until smooth. 

 

3. Add butter to the sugar mixture and whisk until incorporated. 

 

4. Add flour mixture to the sugar mixture and stir with a spatula until fully combined. 

 

5. Transfer dough to counter and knead until smooth, about 20 seconds. Roll it into a 5 inch log. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refidgerate until very firm, at least 2 hours or up to 5 days. 

 

6. When ready to bake, adjust over racks to upper-middle andlower middle positions and heat oven to 300 degrees. 

 

7. Line 2 rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. 

 

8. Using a sharp chef's knife, slice the dough log into 1/8 of an inch rounds, and transfer to prepared sheets, placing 20 cookies per sheet, leaving 1/2 inch between each round.  

 

9.  Bake until the center of the cookie gives very little when pressed with your fingertip, 20 to 22 minutes, switching and rotating sheets halfway through baking. 

 

10. Let cookies cool on sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely. Serve

 

Cookies can be stored at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.