The day is my enemy, the night my friend,

The problem with work is, it gets in the way of things I want to do. Which means when I get home, there's a hundred things I try to do, so I stay up WAY too late and struggle through the next day. I was happy that tonight's Garlic and Sapphire's recipe was a super quick appetizer. Gougeres!

I have made gougeres exactly one time. They were cheddar, and in Thatboy's ridiculous "room above a garage." Honestly, I can't remember much about them as I tried desperately to block any memories from that time period from my memory.

The gougeres were inspired by the gougeres at Daniel. In the book it's the first restaurant Reichl gives the elusive four stars (however, since there are, I'm sure, many restaurants that she doesn't include in the book, there are probably others who'd received four stars before). Reichl and her party purposely compose a rag tag group at this fancy establishment and while they are waiting in the bar for their table, the gougeres arrive. The cheese puffs are so wonderful at this restaurant, that a passing patron snatches one of the plate "as if we were all guests at a cocktail party." After reading the description of these gougeres I was anxious to try them - so let me let Reichl paint the picture for you:
"And then I didn't say anything else because I had taken a bite of one of the little puffs and I was concentrating on the way they simply evaporated into hot, cheesy air when my mouth closed over them."

I divided the recipe by 4 because there were just 2 of us tonight and we don't need 8 cocktail servings. It was easy, it was quick..ish...and SO good. As soon as he took a bite that boy said "There's nothing in here that's good for us is there?" I listed off the ingredients "egg, flour, butter, cheese - nope, nothing good for you." Didn't stop either of us from gobbling them up.

Gougères

1 cup water
1/4 pound (8 tbsps) unsalted butter
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
5 eggs
1 cup diced Gruyère cheese
Pepper to taste
1/2 cup grated Gruyère cheese

1. Preheat oven to 375 F.

2. Combine the water, butter and a teapoon of the salt in a saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring until butter melts. Remove the pan from the heat, let cool slightly, stir in the flour, and mix well. Return the pan to the heat and stir with a wooden spoon over high heat until the mixture comes away from the sides of the pan. Remove from the heat.

3. Stir in the eggs, one at a time until well combined. Add the diced cheese, the remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt, and pepper, stirring well.

4. Drop the dough by rounded tablespoons onto a well-buttered baking pan. Smooth the top and sides of each gougère with a knife. Sprinkle with grated cheese.

5. Bake in batches for 25 minutes, or until puffed and golden. Serve immediately.

Alright, don't forget, I already warned you these are terrible for you.
Makes 8 cocktail servings. Each serving has:

Calories		329.7
Total Fat		22.4 g
Cholesterol		189.5 mg
Sodium		555.6 mg
Potassium		85.5 mg
Total Carbohydrate		18.4 g
Protein		13.4 g