Odd flower bento (B#302)

Been away for training. This was what I fixed for Master Prince over the weekend - some fish fingers, bread, tomatoes and cucumber sticks. Also acting as a divider or baran is a tomato sauce packet.

Cheesy bacon & Herb Gougères

Was a little curious about these bites. Saw them first here and decided to try it out. The end product was nice and light crusty bite, flavoured with our favourite ingredients bacon, cheese and herbs – wow, taste delicious even before I started baking them!! Great for snacking or served as an appetizer and can just imagine, perfect dish for superbowl - especially with a few cold beers or wine.

The only problem I encountered was making the choux pastry, the final cooked dough was a little dry and after adding the egg it resulted in one lumpy mess. To salvage everything, finally sieved it to a more respectable batter.

Ingredients
(makes slightly more than 12 petite bites, if you managed to pass the choux pastry successfully)

1.5 bacon strips, cooked and chopped into small bits
1/4 cup water
1.5 tbsp butter
pinch salt
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 egg
1/4 grated cheddar cheese
1 tbsp chopped chives
2 tsp parmesan cheese

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees.

2. In a saucepan, combine the butter, milk and salt and bring to a boil. Remove the pan from the heat and add the flour all at once.

3. Using normal hand whisk mix the ingredients together and then return the pan to the heat and continue whisking to dry the paste out slightly.

4. Remove the heat from the pan again, switch to a wooden spoon, and mix in the egg.

5. Stir in bacon, cheese and herbs.

6. Using a teaspoon, drop spoonfuls onto baking tray. Alternatively you can pipe out the batter.

7. Sprinkle more cheese on top if you wish (I didn’t).

8. Bake at 170 degrees for 15 min and cut slits on the top to let the steam out and continue cooking at reduced temperature of 150 degrees for another 10 min until golden brown.

9. Serve warm. They freeze well too, just reheat in the oven before serving.

Bench notes - They are a little addictive so double or triple the recipe, otherwise it might just not make it out of the kitchen!!