Mmmm, gougeres. Silky, fluffy, rich, and crispy, all at once. You melt butter in water on the stove, mix in some flour and beat in eggs one at a time, dump spoonfuls onto a sheet pan, and twentyish minutes later, you've got an hors d'oeuvre that doesn't need to be babysat. Perfect for any occasion.
Except when you're making them to serve with an ostensibly Mexican meal, including pumpkinseed molé, rice, and chiles en nogada. Oops.
But, if neither you nor your friends really want to make a big issue out of authenticity, you add two things to a regular gougere batter -- fresh raw corn and diced jalapenos -- and then you call it a day. A cheesy, silky, fluffy, rich, chow-em-down day.
Batter up:
Magically delicious:
And on the inside:
Ah, just rip it wide open for a better view:
Want a recipe? I left the bacon out (shocking, I know!) and added one seeded, very finely diced jalapeno to this recipe from Gourmet. I also reduced the amount of corn to one ear and didn't cook the kernels before adding to the batter.
(And of course I left out the chives. Chives are pretty much always optional, right?)
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