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Posted on Mon, Oct 10, 2011 : 10:30 a.m.

Your dinner guests will devour these rich, delicious Parmesan puffs

By Mary Bilyeu

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Mary Bilyeu, Contributor

I had prepared a simple chicken and rice soup one morning, which would have all day to linger in the refrigerator developing flavor while I worked. It would then be ready for reheating at the end of a long day.

And then I found out I'd be having company for dinner, with little time to make anything more glamorous to substitute for the soup.

What to do, what to do?

Serve the soup anyway. And offer some tantalizing tidbits to go with it, to make the meal seem more special.

These Parmesan Puffs take just half-an-hour from start to finish. Boil a little bit of milk and butter together, then stir in some flour, eggs and cheese. Bake dollops of the dough, and that's it!

They're rich and delicious, and people will devour them — you might not even need to serve the soup alongside them, the puffs are so popular!

I've had this recipe for more than 21 years — it first appeared in the January, 1990 issue of Gourmet magazine. And whether the puffs are served as hors d'oeuvres or as an accompaniment to soup or a salad, they are a great treat for any occasion.

Parmesan Puffs

1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup butter
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 large eggs
1 cup finely grated Parmesan

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease a cookie sheet.

In a medium saucepan, bring the milk, butter and salt to a boil. Add the flour all at once, and stir until it forms a ball. One by one, stir in the eggs; stir in the parmesan.

Using a 1-inch ice cream scoop, place walnut-sized balls of dough onto the baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes until the puffs are firm and starting to turn golden.

Makes about 36 puffs.


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Mary Bilyeu has won or placed in more than 60 cooking contests and writes about her adventures in the kitchen. She was thrilled to have her post about Scottish Oatmeal Shortbread named as one of the daily "Best of the Blogs" by the prestigious Food News Journal.


Go visit Mary's blog — Food Floozie — on which she enthuses and effuses over all things food-related. Her newest feature is Frugal Floozie Friday, seeking fun and food for $5 or less ... really! Feel free to email her with questions or comments or suggestions: yentamary@gmail.com.


The phrase "You Should Only Be Happy" (written in Hebrew on the stone pictured in this post) comes from Deuteronomy 16:15 and is a wish for all her readers as they cook along with her ... may you always be happy here.

Comments

Gordon

Tue, Oct 11, 2011 : 12:42 p.m.

Gryure woulkd be good with a little fine grd black pepper.

kfolger

Mon, Oct 10, 2011 : 6:30 p.m.

This sounds both tasty and doable; I'm definitely going to give it a try. Have you tried the recipe with other cheeses? I'd like to try it with cheddar.

Mary Bilyeu

Mon, Oct 10, 2011 : 6:40 p.m.

I haven't tried making these with other cheeses, but I think they'd work just fine. Parmesan can be grated finely because it's so hard; but I would presume that shredded cheddar would be a good substitute. If you make them, please let me know how they turn out!