Name: Gougères au fromage
Cook time: 1 h
Total time: 5 h
Yield: 4 Servings
Ingredients: Butter: 65g/ 2¼oz; water: 150g/ 5oz; Salt: 1 tsp; Black Pepper: 1 tsp; all purpose flour: 95g/ ¾Cup; Eggs: 3 eggs; Grated Cheese: 1 cup

Features:

Cuisine:

French

5 hours
Serves 4
Medium

Ingredients

65g/ 2¼oz Butter
unsalted
150g/ 5oz water
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Black Pepper
crushed
95g/ ¾Cup all purpose flour
3 eggs Eggs
2 eggs unbeaten in one bowl and 1 egg beaten in another, we add just as much as needed from the beaten egg
1 cup Grated Cheese
gruyère, cheddar, Gouda or parmesan (or a mix)

Directions

You gotta hand it to the French, Gougères are just addictive, so if you have strong will power go for this recipe and make these cheese puffs, otherwise, avoid at all cost because you’ll end up eating half of what you make on the spot.

This is a fantastic combination, cream puff dough which is amazing, crunchy on the outside and hollow on the inside, and cheese which is a perfect match for this dough.

The process of making the Gougères resembles the making of another famous cheese bun, the Brazilian Pão de Queijo which is made with tapioca flour and different cheese but the method and final result does have similarities.

Getting the Gougères dough right

The guidelines for Gougères are similar to any choux pastry making.

The proportions are crucial when making the cheese puffs, I don’t want to end up with a runny dough that will have a hard time raising in the oven on one hand and on the other I don’t want a stiff dough that will puff in an uneven way and burst in the baking.

This is the reason I always say, beat the last egg and add just as much as you need, add half, quarter or don’t add at all. It is the dough mix that will determine if additional fluids are needed.

The choux pastry needs to be runny and firm at the same time (that’s a great contradiction right there).

Gougères

The cheese

The traditional cheese for the Gougères is gruyère however I find that if you want a deeper flavor you can play with the cheese mix and add different kinds.

For example, cheddar is a great cheese to add which also adds a yellowish-orange color to the cheese buns. Gouda is great as well and if you really want flavor to kick in add parmesan which will boost this bun to a different level.

Shaping the Gougères

The cheese puffs are usually in a round shape, if you want to keep this shape I recommend placing the dough mix in the fridge for 1 hour for it to rest and get a firm body, this will allow the dough to keep its shape.

You can use a piping bag or spoon the dough it makes no difference just let it cool for a bit.

In this recipe, I used Thomas Keller’s tip in shaping the Gougères, and I filled molds with the dough (you can use whichever size you want for this and freeze it for 4 hours and just pop the Gougères frozen balls from the molds and baked it while frozen.

It works and its great, this way you can actually make the dough days in advance and just pop them into the oven before guests arrive, it’s just brilliant.

Gougères

Baking the Gougères

Baking is pretty standard for choux pastry, we start out on 375°F/ 185°c to create steam in the oven and when we insert the Gougères we drop the temperature immediately to 350°F/ 170°c and final dry out in 325°F/ 155°c.

Gougères

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Steps

1 Done 5 minutes	Cooking the dough Set a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Place a medium saucepan over low heat. Add the water, butter, salt and pepper, increase the heat to medium and bring into a simmer. once butter has completely dissolved in the water remove the saucepan from heat. Add all the flour and stir vigorously. Place the saucepan on medium heat again and keep stirring the mixture until it forms a shiny tight dough that pulls away from the sides of the pan. Continue stirring for another 2 minutes and remove from heat.
2 Done 4 hours	Adding the eggs and resting the dough Immediately move the dough into the bowl of a stand mixer and mix for 30 seconds to cool the dough. Add the first 2 eggs, one at a time, and the 3rd beaten egg add as much as needed. Add the eggs in additions, only after the previous egg had been fully absorbed add the next one. The dough needs to be firm and form a "V" shape when paddle is lifted. Add the cheese and pulse to incorporate, not more than 30 seconds. Butter molds for the cheese puffs and spoon them into the molds. Dip your finger in water and smooth the gougères top. Wrap in plastic and put in the freezer for about 4 hours.
3 Done 50 minutes to 1 hour	Baking the gougères Preheat the oven to 375°F/ 185°c. Lay a parchment paper on a baking pan and release the frozen gougères on the pan 1 inch away from each other. Place the baking pan in the oven and immediately lower temperature to 350°F/ 170°c and bake for 40 minutes. Reduce temperature to 325°F/ 155°c and bake for another 20 minutes (don't open the oven door), in this stage we want to dry the puffs making them sweat out all their fluids. If using bigger/smaller molds, adjust the baking timetable accordingly. Take the baking pan out of the oven and cool the gougères for another 10 minutes on the counter before serving.