Tuna Puffs

For my close friends, Tuna Puffs are a tradition at parties, get togethers or just because. They are "expected" and requested at any adult event I host. What you probably didn't know is that I fell in love with Tuna Puffs when I was 5 years old. My Aunt served these at her wedding reception, her Mother-In-Law made them. My Aunt continued to make them randomly over the years and I was excited whenever I saw them on her buffet table.

I made them the first time myself in 10th grade and brought them to a danceline get together and once again, they were expected at every event after. Do the math, I've made a LOT of puffs over the years, even at my young age;) I ran into an old dancing buddy a couple of years ago and she actually asked for the recipe so I guess I left an impression.

They used to intimidate me, the whole making the puff part. Melt the butter and water, add flour, STIR quickly before it clumps, by god, STIR quickly before it clumps. I've since realized that yes you need to stir, and yes it needs to be fairly quick but it rarely clumps, even if you slack. So relax and start your dough.

The second part that used to SUCK and make my arm hurt, was stirring the eggs in. One at a time, incorporate the egg were the directions. It was slimy, it was messy, it was time CONSUMING and oh, my aching arm. Maybe I should have kept the hand beating in...my bingo wings wouldn't be flapping quite as fast. BUT, since I didn't continue to hand beat, I did the cardinal sin apparently of making puff pastry and used the hand mixer..gasp. Ahhh, life was easier, I didn't hate making the pastry dough and you know what, I had a chef ask me how I got my dough so light. I just smiled and gave my bingo wings a pat, I only let me dear blogging friends in on my secrets;)

Stuffing the puff. I use tuna in oil...I know, I know, the horror of it all. But tuna in oil gives the puffs better flavor. Furthermore, you HAVE to use onion. You can mince it up in pieces you cannot see but you need the onion, I promise, even my onion hating relatives don't notice the onion in there. I have had them with egg salad and chicken salad...not so much. Not enough flavor in my opinion but if you want to try that, let me know if you liked it.

You can cut the puffs in half and literally make little sandwiches or you can impress your friends and use either a pastry bag or a ziploc to fill them up. The tiny hole you have to push the tuna in, makes the whole experience less messy. BUT and this is a BIG but...make sure you label them the first time you make them, don't want people thinking they are baby cream puffs. The face you get when a newbie tries one and is expecting sweet and gets tuna, not a pretty one.

Let's get started.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees..I don't preheat for much, but with these a hot oven works best.

Puffs
1 C Water
1 stick Butter
1 C Flour
4 room temperature Eggs~if you forgot to take these out, no worries, cold eggs work ok too

Melt your butter and water in a small pot. When it comes to a boil, turn off the heat and immediately stir in the flour, it will form a ball. Cool for about 10 minutes. Crack 2 eggs into dough and mix with your hand mixer, when those are mixed in, add your other two. Whip it up until you get a sticky dough. Take a spoon out of your silverware drawer and get a small clump of dough, about the size of a small 25 cent gumball. Put on a non stick cookie sheet. The dough puffs up, not too much to the side, so just leave a bit of room. Put in the oven for about 20 minutes. Here is where so many go wrong and get mushy puffs. LEAVE them in the oven until they are fully golden brown. There should be NO bubbles on them. They should be dry, completely dry. Better to overcook then to under cook, that I promise. Remove from pan to cool and repeat. I have a large cookie sheet that I fill up twice, makes about 70 puffs. You can do this a day ahead of time if you need to or even weeks before and freeze them, defrost and stuff (although anyone who knows me, knows that I like things freshly prepared so I have personally never frozen them)

Stuffing

4 cans Tuna in Oil
2 T minced dried Onion or chop up some fresh
1/2 t Pepper
Miracle Whip

Drain tuna, break it up with your fingers. You want to make sure you don't have any big chunks. Add onion and pepper, give it a stir. Add Miracle Whip. I'm guessing here but I'd say about 1/4-1/3 C per can. You want it sloppy, not crazy sloppy but too sloppy for a sandwich. If you want to use less that works too. Chill for an hour or so to let the onion and tuna meld together.

Fill your pastry bag without tip, poke a hole with your finger into cooled puff, insert pastry bag and squeeze until puff is full. Continue 70 more times. Chill for at least a couple of hours, not more than 24 and serve. You can eat them 24 hours later, they just don't taste as fresh.
If you cut your butter up, the process goes that much faster.
This is after you've mixed in your flour. See the nice ball of dough it forms.
Add a couple of eggs and use your hand mixer to beat these babies in OR give your bingo wings a workout and stir by hand.
This is what the dough looks like. Nice and creamy.
Grab a spoon and grab some dough.
Side view
Pan ready for the oven.
Dry, golden brown, DONE.
Your tuna, I'm short a can but I'm using the leftover puffs and squirting whipped cream out of the can into them, freezing them and giving them to my kids for dessert with hot fudge on top.
Drain your tuna by squeezing the top down.
Break the tuna up so there are no big clumps, add onion and pepper.
Add Miracle Whip and chill for at least an hour.
Disposable pastry bags are my friend. If you don't have one, you can use a ziploc, and clip off a small corner or cut the puffs in half and make a little sandwich.
Poke a hole in the puff like this.
Here's the hole to stuff.
Insert pastry bag and give a gentle squeeze.
Pop in your mouth and enjoy or put in the fridge to chill a bit. You'll be asked to make them again, I promise.