Recipe: Carnation Cheese Puffs

After making pumpkin bread pudding the other day (read that blog post here), I had some leftover evaporated milk. I hate to let things go to waste, so I looked up recipes that use this ingredient. The Carnation website has all sorts of ideas, and their recipe for cheese puffs needed only 1/2 cup of evaporated milk, which was exactly what I had left!

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup evaporated milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/3 cup butter, cut in small pieces
•  3/4 tsp salt
•  1/4 tsp pepper
•  1 cup all-purpose flour
•  4 eggs
•  1 cup grated old Cheddar cheese
•  2 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
•  Pinch ground nutmeg (optional)

Directions

  1 :  In a saucepan, combine evaporated milk, water, butter, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat and stir in flour all at once, stirring until dough forms a ball. Return to medium heat, and cook, stirring for 2 to 3 minutes.

  2 :  Remove from heat and transfer dough to a bowl. Cool mixture 5 minutes. Add 3 eggs, one at a time, beating each one in completely. Beat the fourth egg separately and add approximately half of egg (use remaining beaten egg to lightly brush puffs). Stir in both cheeses and nutmeg.

  3 :  Drop dough (about 4 across and 6 down) in 1 ½ tbsp mounds onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Brush lightly with remaining beaten egg. Bake in a preheated 400ºF oven for 28 to 30 minutes, until puffed and golden brown. Remove to a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

In the first step, my dough didn't just make one big ball; it was a bunch of little ones. And I only used cheddar cheese, but it wasn't "old," and I may not have used enough of it. While I think my cheese puffs look the part, they really have no taste at all. Maybe I needed more cheese, or more salt and pepper, or something, but they kind of don't taste like anything. So disappointing! I guess if I were to eat them with a gravy or sauce, it wouldn't matter. But if I make these again, I'm definitely doing something differently!