Blue Cheese Gougères...

Today I'm feeling a whole lot of blue, and sadly have to say that I will not be posting for a while here at “A nod is as good as a wink...” but I want to thank all my followers & readers for their never ending support & kind comments these last many months. During this time, I have had the great opportunity to get to know & follow some incredibly talented and creative people.

As you have read and learned here, family & friends are the most important things in my life. I love the give & take and the camaraderie that comes with friendships… and for me, the members of my family are my dearest friends. So, when friends need help, I am there on a moments notice.

I received a call from my parents, who informed me that my mother is requiring major surgery. So today, I am heading further south to Florida to be with them for whatever time is necessary. It could be a few weeks or a few months. During that time I will occasionally be checking in with my fellow bloggers and leaving comments when I can, so keep blogging your terrific post. I know there will be some great post that I will miss, but believe me ~ I will be browsing through and catch as many as I can.

Till my return, I leave you with this post I wrote last evening...

I am feeling blue in a good way. Blue cheese is one of those mixed blessings; when it's good, it's very, very good. But when it's bad, it's horrible. And when it's used in a reckless way in recipes, it can be very very bad indeed.

The worst offender of the many types of blue is Stilton, when using it as an ingredient in cooking. But don't get me wrong – I do enjoy draining the last drops of a good red wine while nibbling away at some creamy, stilton with perhaps a crisp apple and a few walnuts at the end of a great dinner. I also have several winter salads that feature stilton crumbled over mesclun greens with a wonderful walnut vinaigrette drizzled over the top.

I have found that blue cheeses are an excellent way to give tang to most recipes that call for cheese. Several months ago, I posted a wonderful cheese straw that would be good with a mild blue cheese. Here is another terrific hors d'oeuvre that I think you will find to be a big hit at any party. Enjoy…




Blue Cheese Gougères

Ingredients:
1 cup milk
½ cup unsalted butter
1 tsp salt
A few grinds of black pepper
A few grinds of nutmeg
1 cup plain flour
4 eggs
3 ounces crumbled harbourne blue or Dorset blue vinney
¼ cup grated parmesan, for sprinkling over the top
1 egg beaten with 1 tsp water, for glazing

Preheat the oven to 425 degree F.

Line two baking sheets with parchment. In a saucepan, heat the milk, butter, salt, pepper and nutmeg over medium heat until the butter has melted and bubbles appear around the edge of the pan. Beat in the flour with a wooden spoon – the moment the mixture comes together into a smooth dough and starts to pull away from the sides of the pan, stop beating. Tip into a food processor, add the eggs and cheeses, and pulse until smooth, thick and shiny.

Spoon into a piping bag fitted with a large, round tip or use a plastic bag with the corner snipped off; or just mould it with two spoons. Pipe mounds about the size of a walnut on to the baking sheets. Dampen your finger with water and lightly press down the tip of each mound. Brush lightly with egg wash and sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

Bake for 12-15 minutes, until golden, and serve at once.

To make them ahead of time: cool the cooked gougères and then freeze. Defrost and warm through for five minutes at 400 degree F before serving. They will still be delicious, just not quite as melt-in-the-mouth light as they are when fresh out of the oven.

Makes about 45

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George’s notes:

• Blue cheese is a general classification of cow's milk, sheep's milk, or goat's milk cheeses that have had Penicillium cultures added so that the final product is spotted or veined throughout with blue, blue-gray or blue-green mold, and carries a distinct smell.
• Blue cheese is believed to have been discovered by accident. The caves in which early cheeses were aged shared the properties of being temperature and moisture controlled environments, as well as being favorable to many varieties of mould. Roquefort is said to have been invented in 1070 AD.
• Maytag is a blue cheese produced on the Maytag Dairy Farms outside of Newton, Iowa. In1938, Iowa State University developed a new process for making blue cheese from homogenized milk, instead of traditional sheep's milk. In 1941, production of the cheese was started grandsons of the founder of the Maytag appliance company, Frederick L. Maytag. In the beginning, the milk for the cheese came from a prize winning herd of Holstein cattle that was established by E.H. Maytag, another son of the Maytag founder.
• A gougère, in French cuisine, is a savory choux pastry with cheese. Grated cheese may be mixed into the batter; cubes of cheese may be pushed into the top, or both.