It’s holiday entertaining season, so we say bring on the fat and carbs!
After all, navigating the minefield of office parties and in-laws and dinner parties and cookie swaps (when you’d rather be on the couch with Netflix and a pint of ice cream) requires a bit of comfort food (not to mention a stiff drink, but that’s another recipe for another time). Still, if you’re entertaining, you can’t totally slack off. You just need to marry your need for fatty comforting carbs with something dressy enough to serve in polite company.
So we give you blue cheese and mushroom cheese gougeres. Or just call them cheese puffs; they’re delicious no matter what you call them. They’re basically dough balls studded with chopped mushrooms and crumbled blue cheese. They are delicious right from the oven or at room temperature. And as an entertaining bonus, they can be prepped ahead and frozen on the baking sheet. Just add a few minutes baking time when you’re ready to cook them off.
Blue cheese and mushrooms not your style? Substitute pretty much any cheese you like, ditch the mushrooms, add fresh herbs or scallions. Whatever. It all works.
And while your mother-in-law or boss may judge you, we promise to look the other way if you feel the need to power eat these like popcorn during the party. Our gougeres are a judgment-free zone.
BLUE CHEESE AND MUSHROOM GOUGERES
Start to finish: 50 minutes
Makes 25-30
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, divided
8 ounces mixed mushrooms, finely chopped
2 shallots, finely chopped
Kosher salt
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup milk
Ground black pepper
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 eggs
3/4 cup crumbled blue cheese
Nutrition information per serving: 70 calories; 45 calories from fat (64 percent of total calories); 5 g fat (3 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 45 mg cholesterol; 70 mg sodium; 4 g carbohydrate; 0 g fiber; 0 g sugar; 3 g protein.
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