Cheese Gougères AKA Cheese Puffs

I had never heard of gougères before seeing a post about them on smitten kitchen's website.  I still don't actually know how to pronounce them.  So let's just call them cheese puffs and be done with all this pretentious nonsense, shall we?

Whatever you choose to call them, know that they are fantastically delicious in every way.  Probably one of the biggest stars at this year's Thanksgiving dinner, and that's saying a lot considering their small size and lack of importance to the meal.  But really, I should have seen it coming, a traditional French choux pastry (the kind of thing you use to make profiteroles, cream puffs, and eclairs) spiked with a TON of cheese could be nothing less than addictive.  

As if the cheesiness wasn't enough to make you start looking for excuses to produce these little gems, they are also impossibly easy to make! In fact, why more people don't make cream puffs and the like is beyond me.  I don't even know if it is possible to ruin them, because so far they have turned out fantastic each time.   So, without further ado, to the great relief of my friends and family, here is the cheese gougères recipe:

Cheesy Potato Gratin

It was a close call between the cheese gougères and the potato gratin, but in the end the potato gratin won out (not that there were so many votes in the first place).  Both were amazingly delicious and don't worry, I will definitely be posting the gougères recipe sometime in the future. But on to the gratin...

It is sooooo yummy! Which is not very surprising considering it is made with heavy whipping cream and butter.  This particular incarnation uses only regular potatoes and involves cheese between the layers, but you can add sweet potatoes and only put cheese on top and it will still be to die for (dare I say maybe even better?)!  

If this cheesy, bubbly picture doesn't make you drool all on its own, try reading on to see if you can handle even more cheesy potato goodness...