Ready to try your hand at a new kitchen project? We’ve got a fun (and actually pretty approachable) recipe for gougeres, which are fluffy, beautiful golden cheese puffs, from Jessie Prawlucki-Styer, chef/owner of Fond, a wonderful bistro in South Philadelphia. About the gougeres, she says:
One of my all-time favorite pastry basics to make is pate a choux. It’s a bit of baking magic, the way they triple in size as they bake, solely by way of steam and gelatinized starches and proteins, puffing into hollow shells for any filling you can imagine. It’s the base for cream puffs, eclairs, Parisian gnocchi, and other treats. I love to eat fresh choux shells right out of the oven, so it’s just a step further to add cheese and herbs to the batter and make a savory treat, gougeres.
A batch of these dreamy cheese puffs, will turn even the simplest soup, salad or plate of scrambled eggs into a bit more of an actual meal!
Gougeres
| Prep Time | Cook Time | Total Time |
|---|---|---|
| 15 min | 45 min | 60 min |
Ingredients
- 6 ounces milk
- 6 ounces water
- 4 ounces (or 1 stick) butter
- 5 eggs
- 1.25 cups all-purpose flour
- 1.5 teaspoons salt
- 1.5 teaspoons cracked black pepper
- 4 ounces grated Gruyere
- 2 tablespoons to 1/4 cup rosemary, or any combo of herbs, chopped
Method
- Preheat oven to 375°.
- Sift flour with salt.
- Whisk eggs, and remove 2 tablespoons to use as an egg wash.
- Have a mixing bowl and mixer with paddle attachment ready.
- Bring milk, water and butter to a boil; make sure they only fill the pot about 1/3- to 1/2-full.
- Remove pot from heat and stir in flour and salt (I like a wooden spoon for this). Return to medium heat and cook until it’s a firm mass that pulls away from the pan, about 1 to 2 minutes. Dump into mixing bowl, and mix on medium speed for about a minute.
- With mixer running, add eggs, little by little. Scrape down and continue to mix until smooth and well-combined. If it’s still quite hot, cover and cool a bit.
- Mix in cheese and herbs. Batter can be chilled for up to 24 hours at this point.
- Line a sheet pan with parchment paper (a greased pan should be fine, too). Drop blobs onto pan, about 2 tablespoons each, 2 inches apart. Use a pastry brush to tap egg wash onto tops of gougeres, and to gently press in any spiky bits of batter.
- Bake for 20 to 30 minutes, rotating the pan after 15 minutes. Gougeres should be bronzed and firm to touch.
- Recipe: Jessie Prawlucki-Styer, Chef-Owner of Fond
- Photo: Courtesy of Fond
