Cougar Cheese Puffs with Smoked Salmon Filling

Preheat oven to 400° F.

Filling

Place filling ingredients in a food processor or a medium bowl and blend until smooth.

Puffs

In a medium saucepan, combine water, butter and bring to a boil over medium heat, melting the butter. Remove from heat. Add all the flour at once and beat vigorously with a wooden spoon until mixture is smooth and begins to leave sides of pan and forms a ball. Return to medium heat and beat vigorously for 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from heat and add eggs, one at a time, beating well to incorporate until smooth and velvety. Add grated cheese. Pipe with a pastry bag with no tip attached (or use small teaspoon) onto baking parchment paper on cookie sheet, or a greased cookie sheet. Use about 11/2 teaspoons of batter for each puff. (This will make approximately 50 puffs.)

Bake at 400° for 10 minutes. Open oven door slightly, keep ajar and bake an additional 15 minutes. (This allows steam to escape from oven.) When baked, remove from oven and pierce each puff with a thin, sharp knife to let steam escape. Turn off oven; return puffs to oven for 30-45 minutes to dry out, leaving door ajar. Remove from oven; split and fill puffs with salmon filling. Puffs may be reheated briefly in a 350° F oven to crisp before filling and serving.       Servings: 10