Cheesy Poofs!

Hooray for Cheesy Poofs! I made them up, so I got to name them. Well, I didn't really make them up completely. I was trying to recreate a Trader Joe version that are oh so good. But I decided I could make them better, and I did. Mostly because it is hard to compete with homemade pie crust. These units of measurements are approximations, because of course I wasn't measuring anything when dumping them in.

Crust:
2.5 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, cold, cut into 1 inch pieces.
3 tablespoons ice cold water
1/2 tablespoon apple cider vinegar (if you don't add this, just add a little more water)

Place flour, salt and sugar in a food processor and pulse until combined. Add the cold butter and pulse until the butter crumbles are roughly the same size of peas. Add the water and vinegar through the feed tube while pulsing. The dough will still be in pieces (do NOT overprocess) with obvious butter crumbs. Dump your dough out onto a clean surface with plastic wrap readily available. Divide into two mounds (just to make easier to work with) and work quickly to knead each mound once over with the palm of your hands. Quickly gather each mound together so it is the shape of an extra large hockey puck. Wrap in plastic wrap, and squeeze over the plastic wrap until the dough is a cohesive round. This whole process should take no more than five minutes. The point is to keep the butter as cold as possible, so you work it as little as you can (hands are quite warm). Put each round as it gets wrapped up in the fridge for 20 minutes before you roll them out.

Have all purpose flour ready when you roll out the dough. I usually start rolling with the plastic wrap still on until it it slightly flattened. I then sprinkle some flour on a clean work surface, unwrap my pie dough, flour the top of the now flattened round, and roll out the dough. If you don't have a rolling pin, I've used bottles of olive oil and bottles of wine before. They worked pretty well. Keep moving the dough around, and roll by starting at the center of the dough and rolling outward until the dough is around 1/4 inch thick all around. I only used half the dough for cheesy poofs, as a whole batch would have made a ridiculous amount of poofs. I saved the other half, and this freezes well if you don't use it immediately.

Cut into 2 inch squares (see picture). I have this little gadget for making pie lattice, so I used it. It also gave it a nice edge.

Also, see how the coloring is not totally even? That is what you want. The white blobs are whole chunks of butter, and will result in a deliciously flaky crust. If you don't have this, you over processed the dough. Press each square into a mini muffin cup.

Put the whole tray in the fridge when you're done cutting the dough.

Filling:

In a standing mixer, add:
1 cup of diced pancetta or ham (they have a convenient package at Trader Joes)
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1 stick butter, softened
2 eggs
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons chopped chive
Salt and pepper...I would say to taste, but don't taste the filling. That would be gross. Just add however much you'd like. You know how much salt and pepper you usually like in your food.

Beat with paddle attachment until combined.


Transfer filling to a pastry bag and pipe into each dough cup. I baked at 350 for around 25 minutes. Let cool for a good ten minutes before eating.