Official Liaison College Blog

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Cheese Puffs with Roasted Tomato Pesto


This elegant appetizer goes perfect with baked fish or anything grilled! Serve these at an early summer dinner party to impress your guests.



Ingredients
Cheese Puffs
1 cup (250 mL) water
½ cup (125 mL) butter
½ tsp (2 mL) salt
1 cup (250 mL) flour
4 eggs
1 cup (250 mL) grated fontina cheese
1 tsp (5 mL) dried mustard


Roasted Tomato Pesto
4 plum tomatoes, halved, seeded
1 tbsp (15 mL) olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 tbsp (25 mL) chopped basil
¼ cup (50 mL) grated Parmesan cheese
2 tbsp (25 mL) chopped pine nuts
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Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400ºF (200ºC).

2. Bring water, butter and salt to a rolling boil over medium heat. Remove pot from heat and add flour immediately. Beat together with a wooden spoon until flour is incorporated. Return to heat and continue to beat until dough leaves sides of pot and a film has covered the bottom of the pot, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat.

3. Using a wooden spoon, beat in eggs, one at a time, until fully incorporated and mixture is very shiny and soft. Beat in cheese and mustard.

4. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Using a piping bag fitted with a ½-inch (1-cm) tube, pipe balls 1-inch (2.5-cm) in size. If the balls have little points, wet your finger and press them down. If you do not have a piping bag use a wet tablespoon and drop mounds onto baking sheets.

5. Bake for 15 minutes. Prick each puff with a skewer to let steam escape. Reduce heat to 350ºF (180ºC) and bake for 15 minutes onger or until golden. Switch the positions of the baking sheets in the oven halfway through to ensure even baking. Remove from oven, prick puffs
once more and let cool on sheets.

6. Increase oven temperature to 450ºF (230ºC).

7. To make filling, toss tomatoes with 1 tbsp (15 mL) olive oil, salt and pepper. Place tomatoes, cut-side up on a baking sheet and roast in the oven for 20 minutes or until shrunken and slightly browned but still juicy.
Remove from oven and let cool. Place tomatoes in a food processor. Add basil, Parmesan, remaining 2 tbsp (25 mL) olive oil and pine nuts. Process until just combined. Season with salt to taste.

8. Slice cheese puffs almost all the way through horizontally. Fill with ½ tsp (2 mL) tomato pesto.

 Submitted by: Lucy Waverman


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