One of the best parts of summer festivals in the valley is the food. And the cheese puff is definitely a crowd favorite for festival goers. Some thousands of the deep fried sweet dough and cheese are expected to be sold at the Mount Carmel Festival in Niles this weekend. Jennifer Jefcoat takes a look at how the perfect puff is made.
"Two cheese puffs please..."
The lines are long for warm dough carefully stretched over cheesy goodness.The cheese puff has long been a festival favorite.
"Everybody comes around here for them. They're the best you can get"
"That's why we come, for the cheese puffs"
"What do they taste like? Heaven"
All this talk about cheese puffs got me thinking.
"So what does it take to make the perfect puff? It takes a lot of work."
First we start with the dough.
"Yeast, water in order to make the dough with sugar..milk, eggs, margarine and then we have our flower too"
Over the course of the weekend.Some 25,000 cheese puffs and another crowd pleaser, twists will be sold.
"25,000, yes, that's a lot of work on your part...well we start early!"
After the dough is made.It's stretched like so. And ever so carefully placed over 2 pieces of American Cheese. Many of these women have been making these cheesy delights for 30 years or more, like Angie Infante who began making cheese puffs with her sister in law three decades ago.
"We worked with the tub, 25 pounds at a time.Then after about 3 years, we finally got a mixer and we'd work from about 11 o'clock in the morning until 12 o'clock at night"--Angie Infante Cheese Puff Maker
After pouring love and care into the delicacy the ladies hand off the cheese puffs to be deep fried to perfection. And the final result? with this cheese puff? A little piece of heaven and surely a big reason why these festival goers continue to come back to the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Festival year after year.
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