As a hors d'oeuvre, you can try this variation of Gougeres that uses bacon, serves about 40 pieces:
Ingredients
8 tbsp unsalted butter cut into small pieces
1 cup of flour
4 large eggs, at room temp. LARGE, not EXTRA LARGE eggs.
3/4 cups of milk
1 1/2 cup of finely grated gruyere cheese
4 stripes of bacon
1/2 cup of water
Salt and pepper to season
Preparation
Fry bacon on pan, let it cool and crumble or chop into tiny pieces.
Preheat oven at 400F.
Combine butter, water and 1/2 cup of milk in a saucepan over high heat.
Season with salt and pepper and bring to a boil.
When butter has melted, remove from heat.
Add flour to the mix at once, stir with wooden spoon until mix forms a thick dough and pulls away from the pan walls.
Bring the pan back to the heat for a minute while continuing stirring, remove from heat and let dough cool to room temperature.
Beat in the eggs one at a time, ensuring each one is incorporated before adding the next one.
Add 1 cup of cheese and the chopped bacon to the dough thoroughly mixing.
Line two baking sheet with aluminium foil.
Using your hands or a tbsp make small balls of dough and put in baking sheet, keep them separate since the balls will grow upon baking.
Use the reminder 1/4 cup of milk and 1/2 cup of cheese to brush the top and sprinkle.
Bake one tray at a time in the middle rack of the oven for about 25 min. or when gougeres start to look golden.
Remove from oven and serve at room temperature or warm for breakfast.
Note: The batter may be heavy to beat, a stand mixer can be used. Just ensure you achieve consistent mixing by stopping the machine and removing the dough out of the beater because as the mix is ready, it will pull from the bowl walls and stick to the beater.
