Gougères (French Cheese Puffs)

Gougères (French Cheese Puffs)

Gougères are light and crispy French puffswith a cheesy centre. Made from choux pastry, they’re an elegant canape toserve with champagne or a kir royale, or they can be stuffed, split or served inplace of bread rolls for soups.

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Course: Appetizer, Baking, Brunch, Festive, Side Dish

Cuisine: French

Diet: Cheeseboard, choux pastry

Prep Time: 20

Cook Time: 30

Total Time: 50

Servings: gougères

Author: Eff | Food Daydreaming

Ingredients

250 ml water
85 g butter, unsalted, cut into small cubes
¼ teaspoon salt
⅛ teaspoon pepper
150 g all-purpose flour
4 eggs
¼ teaspoon chilli powder, plus extra to serve
120 g cheese, plus 50g extra for the top
Extra egg plus a tablespoon or two of milk for an egg wash

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 220°C. Line 2 baking trays with parchment paper and set aside.
Place the water, butter and salt and pepper in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Once the butter has completely melted and the mixture has just come to the boil, remove the saucepan from the heat.
250 ml water, 85 g butter, ¼ teaspoon salt, ⅛ teaspoon pepper
Add all the flour into butter mixture all at once. Using a wooden spoon, mix until incorporated and a dough ball forms.
150 g all-purpose flour
Put the saucepan back onto a low heat and move the dough ball around for 3-4 minutes, cooking out the flour and removing any excess moisture. A good indication that the dough is dry is by the film that develops on the bottom of the saucepan. Take it off the heat and allow to stand for 3-4 minutes.
Add the eggs, one at a time for a total of four eggs, beating vigorously with the wooden spoon to incorporate the eggs into the dough and make a batter-dough. When you first add the egg, it will look like the dough has split, but it will come together as you continue to mix (similar to the way béchamel becomes a sauce). Do not add the next egg until the one before is completely incorporated. The batter-dough that is choux pastry is ready when you lift the wooden spoon and ribbons of thick batter flow from the spoon, ending in a little ‘v’ shape on the tip of the spoon. You’re looking for something roughly between pie dough and pancake batter in consistency.
4 eggs
Add the chilli powder, if using, and the grated cheese and stir until combined.
¼ teaspoon chilli powder, 120 g cheese
Pipe, spoon or scoop 1 tablespoon dollops onto the prepared baking trays, keeping a little space between each gougère.
Whisk the extra egg and milk together to make an egg wash. Brush each gougère with the egg wash and then top with the extra grated cheese and a sprinkle of chilli, if using.
Extra egg plus a tablespoon or two of milk for an egg wash
Bake for 7 minutes, then – without opening the oven door – lower the oven temperature to 190°C and continue baking for 20 minutes and each gougère is golden brown all over. For extra crispy gougères, remove them from the oven at this point, quickly stab each one in the side with a sharp knife, and put them back in the oven to cook for a further 5 minutes.
Remove the gougères from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before serving warm as an elegant starter or in place of bread rolls for soups.

Notes

This is not an in-depth post about all the things that can go wrong with pâte à choux. The consistency of the choux pastry matters greatly to the rise and puff of the finished product, which is so much more important when making a sweet choux pastry. Gougères, on the other hand, with all that cheese folded into the dough-batter, will still be light and crispy, but maybe not quite as airy. So even if they deflate, don’t take it to heart. Baking mishaps are normal and the gougères will still taste fantastic!

Gougères are best when they’re served warm on the day they’re made. But you can prep them earlier in the day, keep the baking trays in the fridge, and bake them just before you need to serve them. They also reheat quite well too, at a low temperature for around 10 minutes.

Don’t skip the cooling down of the dough – you don’t want to cook the egg and have scrambled eggs in your pâte à choux!

A note on cheese. Do not use mozzarella for gougères. You need a cheese with a bit of bite. And sure, you can go Italian (pecorino would be better than parmesan here), but if you can, get yourself a French cheese like Gruyère, Comté or Emmental. If you can’t find a good French cheese, cheddar and tasty cheese will work really well, but don’t buy the pre-grated stuff; you’re looking for finely grated cheese that doesn’t have a non-stick flour coating on it!

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