Miniature Puff Appetizers & Fillings

Tiny choux pastry puffs baked until golden and hollow inside, then sliced and stuffed with your choice of three savory fillings. This is classic French pate a choux scaled down to thimble-sized appetizers that disappear fast at parties.

The puff dough comes together on the stovetop. Bring water and butter to a rolling boil, dump in all the flour at once, and beat hard over low heat. The dough is ready when it pulls away from the sides of the pan and forms a smooth ball. Then beat in the eggs one at a time. Each egg will make the dough look broken and slippery before it smooths out. Don’t add the next egg until the previous one is fully incorporated.

Drop them small, about thimble-sized. They puff dramatically in the oven and need to bake until they’re golden and truly dry inside. Underbaked puffs collapse when they cool. You can make these in the morning and leave them loosely covered with a paper towel so they soften just enough for easy filling.

Pro Tips

• Use room-temperature eggs. Cold eggs shock the hot dough and make it harder to beat smooth.
• Squeeze all excess water from the thawed spinach before mixing the spinach filling. Wet spinach makes soggy puffs.
• Fill the puffs close to serving time. Filled puffs that sit for hours get soft and lose their crunch.

Variations

• Try a smoked salmon and dill cream cheese filling for a more elegant option.
• Mix the corned beef filling with a little horseradish for extra bite.
• Sweeten the puffs with whipped cream and berries for a dessert version using the same dough.