For gougeres: Preheat oven to 400 degree F. Pre-warm the mixing bowl and paddle attachment. Pre-warm the eggs while still in the shell by running hot tap water over them. Change the hot tap water two more times to warm the eggs through. While eggs are warming, measure out flour and sift; set aside. Line a large baking sheet with kitchen parchment paper or a nonstick silicone baking mat, or grease the baking sheet; set aside.

In medium saucepan, bring the water, butter and salt to boiling; reduce heat to low. Add flour all at once and stir vigorously with the wooden spoon about 1 minute or until the dough pulls away from the sides of the pan and forms a ball.

Drain the eggs and wipe the warm mixing bowl dry. Immediately transfer the dough to the warm bowl. Fit with the paddle attachment and turn to medium speed. Crack 1 egg at a time into an unbreakable dish and add egg to the batter; combine completely. Add the remaining 3 eggs, one at a time, and combining completely before adding the next egg. When all eggs are in, scrape the bottom of bowl and mix in the grated cheese. (Don't worry about overmixing dough, but work quickly to keep batter warm.) Spoon the dough into a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch diameter round or star tip or use a tablespoon.

Pipe dough into twenty-four 1-inch (for canape size) or twelve 2-inch (for entree size) mounds or drop 12 heaping tablespoons of dough onto prepared pan, spaced evenly apart. Bake for 5 minutes. Turn oven temperature down to 375 degree F. Bake about 7 minutes more for the 1-inch or 12 minutes more for the 2-inch or until evenly golden. Transfer gougeres to a wire rack; cool.

For vinaigrette: In a screw-top jar, combine oil, lemon juice, basil, sugar, mustard, garlic, and black pepper. Cover and shake well; set aside.

For salad: When the baked gougeres are cool enough to handle, cut off the top one-third of each. Carefully remove any soft dough inside the gougere with a fork of spoon. Spoon 1/4 teaspoon of the vinaigrette into the base of each canape-sized gougere. Use 1 teaspoon of the vinaigrette in the base of an entree-sized gougere. Pour remaining vinaigrette over mesclun; toss lightly to coat.

To serve, stuff some of the dressed salad into each gougere, allowing the greens to poke out merrily. Serve immediately. Makes 6 servings (about twenty-four 1-1/2-inch or twelve 3-inch gourgeres).

Odessa's Tips for great Gougeres: For light puffy Gougeres pre-warm the eggs in the shell and work with warm batter.Serve warm with champagne!Practice makes perfect. Start with small Gougeres piped out to the size of a quarter before progressing to larger puffs. The larger the Gougeres, the more likely they will deflate if taken from the oven before they are set. Gougeres large enough to hold an entree-sized salad can be piped out to a 2.5-inch diameter. Use a high quality hard aged grating cheese such as true Parmesan. Moist cheeses make the batter heavy. We use an aged grating cheese made in Antigo Wisconsin called Stravecchio.Gougere can deflate even when they look done. A simple trick is to slip one gougere off the pan while leaving the rest in the oven. Set it on a cool counter and watch if it deflates in the first half minute. If it does, keep the rest in for another minute to two.Larger Gougeres make a perfect lunch entree. Re-crisp and fill with salad and shaved cheese. Put and extra full teaspoon of lemon vinaigrette in the bottom of the shell. Extra gougere can be successfully frozen and re-crisped. Defrost first, cut off the top so steam can escape. Reheat at 350degree F until hot all the way through. Bite size gougers will take around 5 minutes to re-crisp. 3-inch diameter Gougeres will require more like 8 to 10 minutes.