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Gougères
Gougères are cheese puffs based on cream puff pastry dough. They originated in the Burgundy region of France, but are now made all over, and they are excellent bites to go with a drink.
I had some people at my apartment for champagne and nibbles last weekend and thought they were the perfect thing to prepare: The dough can be prepared ahead, even refrigerated for a day, then baked off at the last minute. I found out, however, that they are just as delicious at room temperature. When my guests didn't finish them off, I did.
This particular recipe is from Jacques Pépin Celebrates. What makes it different from other recipes is Jacques' food processor method. Usually, the eggs have to be beaten in one at a time, with some effort, until they are each incorporated into the dough. Here, all the eggs go in at once and in 15 seconds the dough is ready to accept the cheese. In addition, Jacques suggests sprinkling each gougere with a pinch of sea salt, which adds a little crunch to the surface and brings out the flavor of the cheese.
I credit the huge success of mine to the great cheese I used: Genuine, well-aged Gruyere from Switzerland, and some 20-month-old (that's old) Grana Padano from Italy.
Gougères
Makes about 30 gougères
1 cup milk
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
¼ teaspoon salt
Dash cayenne pepper
1 cup (about 5 ounces) all-purpose flour
3 large eggs
½ teaspoon paprika
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese (Parmigiano-Reggiano, pecorino-romano, or Grana Padano)
1½ cups grated Swiss cheese (Emmenthaler or Gruyére)
Coarse salt (fleur de sel or kosher salt), to sprinkle on top
Bring the milk, butter, salt, and cayenne to a boil in a saucepan. Remove from the heat, add the flour in one stroke, and mix vigorously with a wooden spoon until the mixture forms into a ball. Put back over medium heat, and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 1 minute, to dry the mixture a bit. Transfer to the bowl of a food processor, let cool 5 minutes, then process for about 5 seconds to cool further.
Add the eggs and paprika to the processor bowl, and process for 10 to 15 seconds, until well mixed. Transfer the choux paste to a mixing bowl, and let cool for 10 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with a reusable nonstick baking mat or grease the sheet well. Reserve 1 tablespoon of the grated Parmesan cheese, and add the remainder of the Parmesan and all of the Swiss cheese to the choux paste. Stir just enough to incorporate. Using a tablespoon, scoop out a level tablespoon of the gougère dough, and push it off the spoon onto the cooking mat. Continue making individual gougères, spacing them about 2 inches apart on the sheet. (You should have about thirty.) Sprinkle a few grains of coarse salt and a little of the reserved Parmesan cheese on each gougère. Bake for about 30 minutes, until nicely browned and crisp. Serve lukewarm or at room temperature with drinks.
Arthur's Two Cents: I didn't reserve any of the grating cheese as suggested by Jacques. Instead, I incorporated all of the cheese into the batter, sprinkling the top of each gougère only with salt just before baking.
It's also important to bake the gougères on a rack positioned in the center of your oven to ensure even top and bottom baking. When removing gougères from the pan, it's safer to use a metal spatula so that no pieces of the dough stick to the pan.
