- Have you been searching for an easy appetizer
that's just plain delicious?
Say hello to my cheese puffs.
Light as air choux pastry filled with
an herbed creamy, dreamy goat cheese mixture
that you're gonna love.
Hey, you're watching Preppy Kitchen where I, John Kanell,
teach you how to make delicious homemade dishes
to share with your family and friends.
These cheese puffs will be ready in a snap.
So let's get started.
First off, get everything ready.
So you wanna have your water, your eggs, your flour,
your salt, your sugar, your butter,
everything ready at your fingertips
because the first part of this is a little time sensitive.
You don't wanna have to search for things in your kitchen.
Just have it all out.
I think it's called mise en place, hmm.
All right, so into a nice medium pot, nice thick walls,
you're gonna add one cup or 240 mL of water,
half a teaspoon of sugar, half a teaspoon of salt.
And then one stick, 113 grams,
eight tablespoons of unsalted butter.
This is gonna go onto heat
and we're gonna bring it to a rolling boil.
Have a wooden spoon at the ready.
Have one cup of flour, 120 grams, ready to dump in.
And then as soon as you put it on heat, get your mixer out.
All right, onto the heat, let's go.
Get that on a medium heat and let that dissolve.
And then this is gonna come to
a rolling intense boil fairly quickly.
As soon as that happens, take it off the heat.
While that's heating up just keep an eye on it.
And in the meantime, get that stand mixer out.
All right, we're gonna need a bowl,
a paddle attachment, and a smile.
So you guys see this is coming to a boil now.
You can stir it up to get
the rest of that butter really dissolved.
But it's not that rolling intense boil that we want.
It's getting close though.
So keep an eye on it and feel free to stir, stir, stir.
Okay, now we have an intense boil,
so take it off of the heat.
And the flour gets dumped in.
Stir hard, and you really wanna
work that flour for about 30 to 60 seconds.
Just get it incorporated.
And you can see how it's kind of forming a mass right now.
That's exactly what we want.
It's forming this ball of dough
that's pulling away from the pan.
But once that happens, it's been about 45 seconds or so,
put it back on the heat.
And we're going to stir hard for 30 to 60 seconds again.
Okay, that's ready.
Off.
Stir it more.
You can see it's really become this
kind of Play-Doh like mass almost.
Pop your dough in...
Plop.
Plop it in that bowl.
And what you can do, since it's so hot right now,
I know some people are gonna be
concerned about scrambling the eggs.
That's fine.
Just run your mixer for a bit.
Let it run on low, steam will come up,
it'll cool down a bit.
And just come back in like one minute.
All right, now we're gonna add our eggs in
one at a time while the mixer is running.
You can increase the speed.
It's looking like a mess, but it's gonna get better.
So, next egg.
(mixer whirring)
In between additions,
I just wanna show you what's happening.
So right now it's getting close to a beautiful choux,
but choux should be silky,
like dripping off of the paddle attachment
slowly and seductively.
This is not doing that.
So we're gonna add more eggs in.
We're only halfway through.
But we wanna scrape the bowl down
because, remember, I want a homogenous mixture.
Continue mixing, add that third egg in.
When you get to egg three
you can check things out and see what's happening.
So, ooh, well.
I mean, that looks pretty good to me.
I feel like it could be just a tish bit silkier.
So here's what I'm gonna do.
It's a lot of egg, so I'm gonna mix it up a bit,
and then just add in like half of the egg.
And now we're gonna mix, mix, mix and see what happens.
I'm gonna add the whole egg in.
I tell you, it's always four eggs.
In you go.
There, now that's what I wanna see.
See how it's falling and it looks really silky.
That choux pastry is ready to be piped.
You can scrape the bowl down
and just see if there's anything to be seen.
Some hidden treasure,
maybe a little bit of egg hanging out here or there.
We can transfer the dough into a piping bag,
fitted with a large round tip.
And by the way, you're not in a rush anymore.
This can hang out in the bowl.
If you need to, just cover it up so it doesn't dry out.
Choux pastry's one of my favorite things to eat.
And I'm actually making this video by popular request,
if I didn't say that earlier.
Because, I think it was in my profiteroles or cream puffs,
I asked if I should make a savory version,
and I got a lot of comments asking for it.
So here it goes, the video.
My piping bag and heart are both full.
So now get some parchment paper, get your baking sheets.
The oven should be at 425,
if you haven't done that already.
And let's get to piping.
Okay, let's make an egg wash.
Just one egg, dash of milk or cream.
You can mix it up in a moment, but it's ready to go.
Parchment paper for your baking sheet.
It makes it really easy.
So much less cleanup.
We're gonna pipe one inch dollops.
And I wanna say that you don't want giant puffs.
If this was a dessert, yes,
you want a huge puff, I understand.
This is gonna be filled with a really delicious,
cheesy, herbed garlic filling.
And it's gonna be nice in a nice bite-sized bit.
Not a huge like, ah, coming out.
That's all I have to say on that subject.
So one inch somewhat conservative dollops.
There you go.
These are gonna look a hot mess.
You don't want that at all.
You want it to be a little spherical shape, not a cone.
But we're gonna fix it, so don't worry.
It's just how it is right now.
And we're gonna bake a couple trays of this.
So let's just do one at a time.
Okay, so the first tray.
Whoa, what is this nonsense?
Here's how you fix it.
A little bowl of water, dampen your finger,
and just tap it down.
Now look, that's perfect.
That's exactly what you want.
Continue to dampen as needed.
Not sopping wet, mind you, just a little damp.
Give that egg wash a little mix.
A lot of recipes say to lightly whisk,
or just give a quick whisk to your egg wash,
but you really want it to be well combined
because any globs of egg white
turn into leather when you bake them.
Just gently brush the egg wash on top.
It's not a must have, if you're short on eggs,
or time, or just don't feel like it,
you don't have to do this.
It just gives them a nice golden finish.
If you didn't want to touch this, all you have to do
is use your egg wash brush to tamp it down.
You can do a lot of shaping that way.
Almost ready for the oven.
The last step is a little sprinkle of cheese on top.
So I have some Pecorino Romano.
It's one of my favorite cheeses.
And just sprinkle it over the top.
Ready for the oven 425 for about 15 minutes.
If they need a little bit more time to puff up,
reduce the temperature to 375
and just keep an eye on them.
It depends on how large you piped them.
Okay, into the oven.
While your puffs are in the oven,
let's make that filling.
It's really creamy, delicious,
and I'm having goat cheese, garlic, cream, some herbs,
and just a lot of yummy things.
This is all to taste, and I love the taste of garlic,
so I'm using maybe a full tablespoon of it.
You could use less.
Give it a nice mince.
You really do want to mince this relatively finely
because, while delicious in little bites mixed in,
you don't want a huge gob of garlic.
I remember I was visiting some family in Greece
when I was like in sixth grade.
And at the time I spoke passable Greek,
but I was very quiet.
And we were at the dinner table.
And I thought there was a huge plate of,
huge bowl of mashed potatoes.
I was like, oh, I love mashed potatoes.
So I served myself some with the rest of it.
And I went to go take a bite.
And it turns out it was just a garlic paste,
accessory to all the other dishes.
Quite the rude awakening for me.
All right, so in this bowl I have
two tablespoons-ish of fresh lemon juice.
Add that garlic in there.
And just let the garlic breathe for awhile.
You mellow it out.
It'll just release a little bit of the bite.
So leave that hanging out there until we need it.
Now we're gonna give our parsley a nice chop.
And for this recipe, you could use any herbs you like.
I actually love the mellow taste of parsley
and it doesn't get its due.
I will say that I enjoy the mellow taste
of Italian, or flat parsley.
The curly one I find a bit waxy.
This doesn't have to be as fine a mince,
but just give it a good chop.
At this point, you would chop up
any other herbs you're using, and set them aside.
And now either get a big bowl out, or you're stand mixer,
and we're gonna mix in the goat cheese and cream.
It's gonna be delicious.
As soon as your puffs come out of the oven,
admire their beauty,
but then poke them on the bottom with a skewer or a knife.
And just let them breathe because they're full of some steam
and you want them to stay nice and crisp.
My puffs are baked and cooling.
Let's finish the filling.
It's so easy and I cannot wait to take a little taste.
The main thing we're adding in here is goat cheese.
So that is 12 ounces of a nice goat cheese.
So depending on what kind of goat cheese you use,
you might add a little bit more cream or a little bit less
just be forewarned, I'm telling you ahead of time.
Four ounces of cream cheese really helps
to bind things together,
and who would say no to cream cheese?
Tell me, who?
Here's the two tablespoons of lemon juice with garlic.
Pop that whisk attachment on.
You can use a hand mixer, of course, as well.
And start creaming this together.
Now I'm adding in the lemon juice and garlic.
And now half a cup of cream.
Let's take a look at the consistency.
I want this to be pipeable and not runny,
but not super thick as well.
It should be kind of creamy and just amazing.
Okay, so it was a little bit thick still.
I want this to be really easily pipeable,
so one more quarter cup of cream.
Let's take a look at that.
That's much better.
Now let's add in some more flavor.
So hello, parsley, come inside.
Add it all in there.
And now we're gonna be mixing it on low.
We wanna be gentle.
Don't want it all totally crushed.
I'm also gonna add in a nice pinch of salt
and a good amount of cracked pepper.
I have a nice pepper grinder and I can't find it.
It's driving me crazy.
Nice and peppery.
All right, so let's mix it on a lower speed.
I'm gonna finish it off by hand now.
Scrape it down, fold it in.
And we wanna have a nice, evenly distributed mixture.
Okay, this looks delicious.
Let's taste it and find out.
This is making me so happy.
It's just what I like.
Mm.
Transfer your mixture into a piping bag.
I'm using a small star tip.
One, because I can't find my small round tip.
I don't know where anything is anymore.
What's happening to me?
But two, the pointy little edges
will help you cut into the bottom.
So it's actually fine.
It all worked out.
All right, and take a look.
This is where you wanna have a nice piping bag
that won't explode.
You could use a reusable one.
These are Ateco, I found they're really great.
Cut a little hole in with your piping tip
and just squeeze in that mixture.
Nice.
You're gonna feel the weight in your hands.
And then just keep going.
If you wanted to, you could cut them in half
like a cream puff and just fill them up
really quickly with a larger tip.
But I kinda like the way these look.
And by the by, you don't have to fill these up completely.
You don't need to have a ton of filling.
You know, you could fill them up halfway,
or even a third of the way.
And you're gonna have like a nice bite
with lots of crisp, light as air choux pastry
with a really delicious filling inside.
All right, that's it for this batch.
I'm gonna do the other one off camera.
But if you like this recipe, check out my savory playlist.
Tons of delicious, savory dishes that you're bound to love.
But now it's time for a bite.
That is everything I wanted it to be and more.
You've gotta make this recipe and just down them all.
Don't invite anyone over, eat them all yourself.
If you like this recipe hit that like button and subscribe.
And I'll see you in the next video.