You can make these ahead of time, freeze them and reheat them from frozen in a medium oven. I like to keep a bag of them for impromptu fancy snacks with impromptu guests.
This is a great recipe to use up odd ends of cheese that have accumulated over time in the back of the fridge. You might also think about adding olives and sundried tomatoes, or chopped up Parma ham, or cooked mushrooms.
Gougères (Cheese puffs) – makes 15ish
4tbsp butter (1/2 a stick)
½ cup of water
½ cup of sifted flour
2 large eggs
Pinch of salt
½ cup of grated cheese –I mix gruyere and a blue cheese
1 tbsp chopped chives
1 tsp chopped rosemary
- Preheat the oven to 400
- Boil the butter and the water in a pan until the butter melts – make sure the mixture really does come to a boil or the batter never comes together
- Take the pan off the heat and dump in the flour and a pinch of salt. Stir vigorously for about 10 seconds until the pan is clean. You don’t want to overbeat or the glutens in the flour will develop and it will go tough
- Beat in the eggs one at a time – it looks like glue. Don’t worry. Keep stirring briskly. It will come together
- Stir in the cheese and herbs
- Scrape into a piping bag, or a zip lock bag with the corner snipped off, or simply use a tablespoon to dollup blobs onto a tray lined with baking parchment or foil. Allow some room for spreading
- Sprinkle a few drops of water on the tray (to create steam in the oven which helps with the rising)
- Bake for 15 minutes – if they’re big they may need 20 if they’re more teaspoon-sized they may only need 12. I make them about the size of golf balls and they take 18 minutes exactly.
- Take the tray out of the oven, turn the puffs over and prick a hole in the base to let out the steam. Turn the oven off, put the puffs back in and let them dry out in there with the door open
They’re stand alone snacks, though they’re also good dipped into sour cream laced with mustard, or equal parts of cream cheese and sour cream blended, with pate, with chutney, with olive oil and salt.
I sometimes use garlic butter instead of regular butter, or put softened garlic butter on the side for dipping – both are delicious.
This recipe originally appeared paired with pernod and a musing on the French tradition of Cinq et Sept.