These Cheese Puffs are a sort of cheese straw with lots of layers of fine pastry. Not that I ever managed to make a cheese straw this good. They come in a plastic tray in a silver baggie in a cardboard box. When I opened the baggie there was an amazing aroma of onion and garlic. Just delicious. The cheese is more subtle but the whole effect is fabulous.
The plastic tray protects the puffs which are quite fragile, being made of lots of layers of fine pastry, and I have to say they all survived intact despite a journey through the post.
But you don't get all that many in a packet which is a shame.
You can see from the photograph that each Puff is perforated in the middle "twin bites: breakable in the middle for double fun" it says on the packet. If you break them in the middle you can pop each half into your mouth without biting into the fragile pastry, thus avoiding pastry crumbs all down the front of your smart frock. Or, in my case (quite often), all down my cleavage (if you haven't got a cleavage you won't know how tickly that can be). So a clever design feature.
I opened the packet and put the Puffs in a bowl to take a photograph and the Chef and I tried one each. And we thought, well, these are quite nice and the taste is great, but they are a little bit dry. Then the Chef suggested that perhaps a glass of champagne would be the ideal accompaniment. Which is odd because he hadn't seen the packaging which shows a party and a man about to pour from a bottle of champagne. It also shows a very lavish cake but I guess that's another story.
I covered the bowl carefully and determined to try again. When I got home from work next day I found the Chef had accidentally eaten nearly all the Cheese Puffs and had decided they were rather better he had originally thought. He's picky and would not have grazed like this on a sub-standard snack. And I think he's right. Even without that glass of champagne.
I have to admit that we failed to read the TIP! on the side of the packet to stick the Cheese Puffs in the oven at 200°C or 400℉ for 2½ minutes. Oh dear; 2½ minutes isn't long to wait. That'll teach me to read the packaging first and I'll definitely turn the oven on next time.
I haven't tried them with a glass of champagne either. There is a bottle in the fridge but I have a friend coming to stay in a week and that's waiting for her to arrive. So I guess we have to try another packet together. And no doubt the Chef would complain if we left him out.
Definitely a crispy snack to try again.
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