HCP Dishes!
Recipe of the Day:
Cheese Beignets with an Olive and a Twist
Posted by hcpadmin
Monday June 23, 2008These little mouthfuls of crispy pastry have a hidden agenda. You’ll find a pungent olive in the center that makes them a must for adventuresome cooks. Serve a tray of perfectly stirred—not shaken—martinis or, for that matter, flutes of bubbly.
Overview
- Makes 24 beignets
- Cheese Choices: Gruyère or Comté make fine alternatives.
Ingredients
- 1 cup water
- 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) butter
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- Freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 4 large eggs
- 1/2 cup grated Jarlsberg or Emmenthaler cheese (about 2 ounces)
- 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (about 1 2/3 ounces)
- 1 1/2 cups fresh or dried bread crumbs
- 24 pitted kalamata olives
- 1 quart canola oil, for frying
Instructions
- In a medium-size saucepan over medium-high heat, bring the water, butter, salt, and pepper to a boil. Remove from the heat and stir in the flour all at once. When well blended, return the pan to the heat. Stir constantly until the dough is very dry and leaves a light film on the pan, about 1 minute. Remove from the heat and let cool for 2 minutes, then beat in the eggs, 1 at a time. Stir in the cheeses.
- Place the bread crumbs on a plate and drop tablespoonfuls of the mixture on the crumbs, turning to lightly coat all over. Press an olive into the middle of each dough ball and press the dough up and over to completely cover the olive, pinching to seal the top. Recrumb any areas where the crumbs were pushed inside.
- Heat the oil in a medium-size heavy saucepan to 375˚F. Fry the beignets, a few at a time, until browned, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove and drain on paper towels. Serve immediately. Or, let cool and refrigerate; reheat at 350˚F for 10 minutes before serving.
Print or online media may reprint this excerpt with the following attribution: “Excerpted from Cheese Hors d’Oeuvres, by Hallie Harron. (c) 2008, and used by permission of The Harvard Common Press.”
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