Gougères

I never really understood the greatness of cheese puffs until I lived in the south; for whatever reason, homemade cheese puffs or sticks are in a lot of specialty food stores there. Those memories made me curious to see what I would discover with the Gougères recipe.

The main ingredient in this recipe is the pâte à choux. I had only made this once before for the Black Sesame Paris-Brest, otherwise I’ve seen bakers make it in a rush on competition shows. Since it’s a main component of Gougères, I thought I’d share that process for this recipe.

First, I simmered the milk, sugar, salt, butter and water in a saucepan. I combined the flour until it formed into a dough, making sure it had time to absorb all the liquid and almost dry out a bit. I added the eggs one at a time at the stand mixer. I did use all five eggs as directed, though Claire says you might not need all of them if the dough is looking very glossy and holding its shape.

Once I completed these steps for the pâte à choux, I went back to the Gougères recipe and added in the paprika, salt, cayenne pepper and grated Gruyère cheese. I splurged on two blocks of Gruyère for this recipe, and it’s definitely worth it; Gruyère is slightly sharp, with the perfect consistency for grating. I would say Havarti cheese would be another decent option for this recipe. I then transferred all the choux to a piping bag, cutting the end at about a half-inch.

I ended up using two large baking sheets and one small sheet to use up all the pâte à choux. Rather than trace a million circles on the parchment paper, I just estimated as I applied the choux in a 5x7 grid as Claire directed. I also used a silicone mat, which I can’t recommend enough for getting the perfect browning on just about any baked good. I definitely piped more than 35 puffs on the big baking sheets, but I still made sure the puffs all had room to expand. Before placing the puffs in the oven, I brushed all of them with egg wash and sprinkled a little more cheese on all of them.

The puffs baked for about 32 minutes, turning a gorgeous golden brown. I turned off the oven and let them cool inside with the door open for 15 minutes, which helps dry out the choux. Then I let them cool on the baking sheets (However you’ll definitely want to try one of these little guys while they’re warm!).

Claire’s Gougères are a fabulous appetizer idea. I’m not obsessed with cheese puffs, but I really enjoyed how fluffy these were with a little kick from the spices at the end. My sister, who is a huge fan of puffed cheese sticks (you very likely could just pipe the choux in long sticks rather than puffs for the same result), also thought these were great. I think this recipe is perfect for learning how to make pâte à choux, especially because it’s easy to eat several of these Gougères, so they will not last for long!

Claire is absolutely in love with Gougères; she’s also the first person I’ve known to enjoy raw pâte à choux. Check out her YouTube video on this recipe here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okmeKRVSlvM