Blog Flog: Gruyère or Gouda Gougères
Hey, who loves cheese puffs?
I’ve partnered up again with the Egg Farmers of Canada to make a video tutorial on how to make cheesy, eggy gougères for their EggcentricTV app, as part of their new spring recipe collection. Gougères are light, airy puffs traditionally made with gruyère, but I find aged Gouda a pretty amazing alternate.
Gougères are fantastic for spring get-togethers – they’re great for nibbling any time of the year, particularly when there’s wine involved, but seem particularly well-suited to spring gatherings, and just as fitting for brunch as cocktails on the patio, if you’re lucky enough to be rid of the snow. If not, mix up a batch of these, open a bottle of wine and hunker down.
If you’re not familiar, gougères are a French creation, made with choux pastry – the same batter you use to make cream puffs, which you make by melting butter with water on the stovetop, stir in a cup of flour until the dough pulls from the side of the pot, and then beat in four eggs to give it the consistency of thick pudding. The eggs give them their light, airy texture. It’s a pretty simple batter to mix up, and you can use it in all kinds of ways once you get the hang of it.
I mixed up the order of these photos a bit, but you get the gist. Once you have a smooth batter you could bake it plain (for cream puffs!), or stir in a couple handfuls of grated cheese to make gougères. The batter can be dropped from a spoon onto your sheet, or spoon into a large zip-lock bag, snip off a tip and pipe them onto the sheet, then toss the bag. Or use a scoop!
The video be found on the “Celebrating Spring” channel (it’s free!) on EggcentricTV via the iOS App Store or Android App Store – it takes a minute to download, and there are tons of great videos on there.
And here’s the recipe! Make them – honest.
Directions
1In a saucepan bring water and butter to a boil over medium-high heat. Turn the heat down to low and add flour all at once, then stir with a wooden spoon until the mixture pulls away from side of pan.
2
3Transfer the mixture to a bowl and beat in the eggs one at a time with an electric mixer on high speed, beating well after each addition. The batter should have the consistency and colour of thick pudding; thicker than cake batter but thinner than cookie dough.
4
5Preheat oven to 375°F and spray two baking sheets with nonstick spray or line them with parchment paper. Stir the cheese into the pâte à choux and spoon about a tablespoon at a time an inch apart on baking sheets. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until puffed, golden and crisp. Gougères keep, chilled in sealable plastic bags, 2 days or frozen 1 week. Reheat gougères uncovered in a preheated 350°F oven for 10 minutes if chilled or 15 minutes if frozen.
I used to make them with my boys and their friends when my boys were in their early teens. We skipped the cheese, filled them with vanilla pudding and whipped cream.
Sometimes they had a competition who could make the biggest cream puff.
If they are slightly moist inside one can just pull the moist remnants out after they cut them in half.
Lovely memories just came back….
YUM. I made a towering croquembouche – a mountain of cream puffs filled with cream, with chocolate poured overtop – for a library cooking contest in grade 2. I didn’t win.
Can you post the recipe on your blog? I hate having to download another app just to get the recipe. I get that this was sponsored so perhaps you might be limited.
I just did!
I noticed the recipe is not on the egg app site?
Sorry Joseph, it’s here now!
Same comment…want the recipe but not into downloading more apps! Please consider US ~ on the outskirts of the smartphone empire. Please don’t leave us stranded?!
Vivian, I’ll email you the recipe.
I posted it!
Looks great Julie! Your posts are making us hungry as usual.