Gougères

Savoury choux with the cheese beaten in cold after the eggs, baked drier and hollower than a sweet one.

Egg. Not vegetarian — contains gruyère whose rennet the source does not name.

Ingredients

• 1 batch choux pastry, as on its own page, made with water only and no sugar
• 150 g gruyère, finely grated
• 50 g gruyère, coarsely grated, for the tops
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• a grating of nutmeg

Method

1. THE CHEESE GOES IN COLD, AFTER THE EGGS. Grated cheese beaten into a hot paste melts, releases its fat, and the whole thing turns oily and refuses to rise. The paste has to be no warmer than a hand before any cheese touches it. This is the one step that separates a gougere from a cheese-flavoured disappointment.
2. AND THE PASTE IS MADE DRIER THAN FOR A SWEET CHOUX. Water only, no milk and no sugar, and a minute longer on the hob. The cheese adds fat and moisture of its own, and a paste at sweet-choux consistency ends up slack once it is in.
3. THE TOPS ARE A SECOND, COARSER GRATING. Cheese inside the paste does not brown; cheese on top does, and that crust is most of what you taste. Coarse rather than fine, or it burns before the bun is cooked.
4. THEY ARE EATEN WARM, within twenty minutes. Cold they are dense and taste of much less, and they do not come back.
5. Choux pastry made as on its own page, with 250 ml water in place of the water and milk, no sugar, and 4 minutes on the hob instead of 3.
6. Cooled in the bowl until barely warm to a finger.
7. Eggs beaten in as that page directs, stopping a little stiffer than usual -- it should hold a firm peak.
8. NOW the finely grated gruyère, mustard, pepper and nutmeg beaten in.
9. Piped or spooned as walnut-sized buns on lined trays, well spaced.
10. The coarse gruyère scattered over the tops.
11. Baked at 200C for 15 minutes without opening the door, then 180C for 10 to 12 minutes until deep gold and firm.
12. Pierced once underneath, back in the switched-off oven 3 minutes to dry.
13. Served warm, within 20 minutes. They freeze unbaked on the tray and go into the oven from frozen with 3 minutes added.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under France · All recipes