Guest Blogger: Rosemary Parmesan Puffs

Growing up, there was really only 1 cook in the kitchen - my mom. My dad was sort of the pinch hitter, brought in off the bench for big events like Thanksgiving and Christmas to bake and carve the turkey and possibly mash a potato or two. He also whipped up some pretty mean Raggedy Ann birthday cakes for yours truly. However, in the past five or six years (much to my mom's surprise and delight) my dad has fast-tracked to foodie and chef extraordinaire. Though of course, like all modest and selfless fathers, he's the last to admit it, shrugging off our praises as "simply following the recipe". Well dad, I'm here to say, that you can follow the recipe and still be a horrible chef. Case in point: Not Always the Bread Winner.

My dad stumbled across this recipe while searching for Thanksgiving appetizers. The recipe is a simple and quick appetizer - perfect when you've got five other 1st and 2nd courses to prepare. The result of this recipe are, to quote the chef, "tiny cheesy gougeres that are delicious and kind of retro-Frenchy". I would just call the recipe absolutely delicious.

Rosemary Parmesan Puffs
Recipe from: Star Palate by Chef Kathy CaseyRecipe Difficulty: Easy
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 22-25 minutes per batch
Yield: about 50 Puffs

Ingredients:
½ cup Water
½ cup Whole Milk
6 tablespoons Butter
1 tablespoon very finely chopped fresh Rosemary
½ teaspoon Salt
1 tablespoon minced Garlic
1 cup Flour
4 large Eggs
3/4 cup grated high-quality Parmesan Cheese

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Bring water, milk, butter, rosemary, salt, and garlic to a boil over medium-high heat in a heavy medium-sized saucepan. All at once, add the flour and stir in quickly with a wooden spoon. Keep stirring-mixture will come away from the sides of the pan and become thick and stiff. Keep stirring and turning over for about 1 minute (you want to dry the mixture out a bit).

Transfer the mixture to a mixing bowl and, with a handheld or standing mixer, mix on medium-high speed. Add 1 egg. As soon as egg is partially incorporated, increase mixer speed to high. Add remaining eggs ONE AT A TIME after each previous egg is well incorporated. Mixture should be smooth. Mix in the Parmesan.

Line baking sheets with parchment paper. You will need 2 or 3 baking sheets, or work in batches (if you don’t have parchment paper, lightly spray baking sheets with nonstick vegetable spray and watch the cheese puff bottoms closely to prevent over-browning). Drop mixture by heaping teaspoonfuls-they should be the size of large marbles-onto parchment; or you can pipe it from a large piping bag fitted with a large plain tip.

Bake on upper rack of oven for 22 to 25 minutes, or until puffs are golden. Serve warm. If you are short of baking sheets, have more balls ready on sheets of parchment. When a batch of puffs is done, remove the baking sheet from the oven, pull off the parchment filled with cooked puffs, and quickly add the next parchment sheet of puffs.