Mushroom Cheese Puffs

Our next-door neighbors invited us over to celebrate a birthday, and I couldn’t show up empty-handed. I looked through our fridge and found some button mushrooms. Keeping up with my Cookbook Challenge, I skimmed through my Cooking with Bon Appétit :Appetizers book and found a fast appetizer, perfect for nibbling while talking with friend and sipping on wine. This recipe is a parmesan Gougère topped with a savory mushroom and cream cheese filling. This is essentially a pâte à choux dough with cheese.

As a dough, pate a choux is simple to make, and fun to pipe onto the sheet pan. The name, pâte à choux means “cabbage” in french, as the pastry resembles little cabbages when pipped. They are light as feathers and heavenly to eat.

• Servings: 36 mini puffs
• Time: 45 Minutes
• Difficulty: Moderately easy
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Ingredients

For the Pâte à choux:

• 1 Cup all purpose flour
• 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
• Dash of freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 Cup Water
• 6 Tablespoons Butter
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• 4 Eggs
• 1/2 Grated Parmesan Cheese

For the Mushroom filling:

• 1 lb Mushrooms, cleaned
• 6 Tablespoons Butter
• 1/2 Cup minced shallot or green onion
• 1/8 teaspoon Grated Nutmeg
• 1 pound Cream Cheese

Instructions

1. Preheat Oven to 425 degrees F. Grease baking sheets and set aside.
2. Combine flour, pepper, and nutmeg in a small bowl. Mix water, butter, and salt in heavy medium saucepan. Bring to a boil and cook until butter is fully melted. Reduce heat
3. Add flour mixture to saucepan and stir vigorously until mixture is smooth and pulls away from sides of the pan. Remove from heat and allow to cool for 5 minutes.
4. Using an electric mixer ( or a really strong arm) beat in eggs one at a time. Mix until shiny and smooth. Stir in cheese.
5. Fit pastry bag with 1/2 inch round tip (or snip the edge off a ziploc bag) and fill with dough. Squeeze onto baking sheet in 1-inch mounds. Bake until puffed and golden, about 20 minutes.
6. Turn off oven. Remove from oven and cut a slit in each puff. Return baking sheet back to oven and leave the door ajar to let puffs dry for ten minutes. Remove puffs and let cool.

For the Mushroom Filling

1. Chop mushrooms finely. You can also achieve this in a food processor.
2. Melt butter in skillet over medium-high heat.
3. Add shallots/green onions and mushrooms and cook until browned.Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Drain water from mushrooms. and let cool.
4. Mix together cream cheese and mushrooms

To Serve

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
2. Slice tops off of puffs and divide filling between puffs. Replace tops.
3. Bake 5 minutes and serve hot.

Recipe inspired by “Cooking with Bon Appétit: Appetizers” 

 Mangez bien, riez souvent, aimez beaucoup

“Eat well, laugh often, love abundantly”