gougeres

Two years ago, I spent 6 evenings at a great cooking school to learn the art of French pastry, I knew a few things but I learnt a lot of tricks, making the work easier. While we mostly prepared desserts, I rediscovered a favorite of mine: gougeres. They are made of the same dough than choux or puff, but with extra cheese and spices/herbs in the dough itself making it a great appetizers. 

Here there are on our fall table.

Interested in making your own?

they are actually easy to make and delight adults and children alike!

you will need:

1/2 cup of milk

1/2 cup of water

3 1/2 oz butter

5 1/4 oz flour

1/2 tsp salt

4 eggs

cheese (Swiss and Emmental are a good combinations)

salt, pepper, spice, herbs

I like to use cayenne pepper and herbes de provence.

Bring to a boil the milk, water and butter together in a pan,

remove the pan from heat then add the flour and salt at once,

stir with a wooden spoon and return the mixture to the heat,

stir constantly while cooking for a couple minutes.

Now the clever part (and so much better than doing it by hand!)

put the dough in the KitchenAid,

 and mix it with the paddle for a couple minutes to cool it down,

then add 1 egg at a time, mixing constantly.

Take the bowl from the KitchenAid and add the cheese 

(about half the volume of the dough), and spices as desired,

mix manually.

Scoop the dough with a small ice cream scoop onto paper or mat.

Because of the cheese, I found the scoop works much better than piping,

but piping them is perfect for the sweet version (same dough, just no cheese or spice!)

Egg wash the gougeres twice

Bake at 375 degrees for about 25 minutes, until golden brown

This recipe makes a lot of gougeres, prefect for a party,

but too much for 2 people.

So I freeze them, and just warm them up at 300 degrees,

and they are just as good as the first day!

The chef who taught the class, recommended to freeze them right away,

even if they were eaten the next day,

they would be fresher that way.

My kids love to have them for snack: they grab the bag from the freezer

and warm up 5 or 6 in the toaster oven!

Happy day!