Gougeres

Gougeres are a french cheese puff that you make from pate au choux. A dough that you make by cooking flour with water and butter, then slowly adding in egg to finish it. This is a base item that you can then in turn fry or bake and you get a crispy airy dough. From here you can fill it with a whipped cream or ice cream for profiteroles, you can add ham and cheese to it for a savory puff.

It's a very versatile, fairly straight forward recipe, though it does take a bit to get the hang of it. There are three things about this that make it a little more challenging than a simple recipe. The first is making sure your wet ingredients are ready and proportioned correctly. Secondly, after you add the flour, you cook the it long enough while stirring so that is is tacky, but cooked enough to hold its dough form. And lastly that you add the eggs properly so that they don't cook because of the heat and properly get incorporated into the dough so that it doesn't break.

If you get those steps down, the final cooking of the dough is easy and dependent on what your final use it is. It can be an appetizer, a garnish, a dough to stuff for a side or entree, or even a dessert. In the past I have used this to make cheese puffs for hors d'oeuvres, used it as a delicate garnish for a consume, and even fill it with pistachio ice cream then pour warm chocolate over them.

This particular gougere is for my Ham & Potato Bisque. For the flavor I added cheddar cheese and horseradish to the base, then baked them until crispy to use as garnish.

Enjoy

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Ingredients

• Eggs 4 ea

• Flour 1 cup

• Water 1 cup

• Butter 1/2 lb

• Mustard Powder 2 tsp

• Cheddar, grated 1 cup

• Salt 1/2 tsp

• Pepper 1 tsp

• Horseradish 1 T

Method of Procedure

1. If yo are planning on baking these, preheat your oven to 375.

2. Add your water, butter, salt together in a pot and bring up to a boil.

3. Pour in your flour while stirring and continue to cook on medium heat while stirring until the dough begins to turn golden.

4. While your stirring the dough should start coming together and beginning to stick to the sides of the pot.

5. Continue to cook while stirring until the dough begins to form a ball and pull away from the sides.

6. Remove from heat and put the mixture into a mixer*.

7. Slowly add the eggs, 1 at a time, while stirring. Do not add a second egg, until the first one is fully incorporated into the mixture.

8. At this point you are ready to cook with it or add items to it for a different flavor.

9. Add your horseradish, mustard, and cheddar and continue to mix.

10. Spoon out your batter onto a lined sheet tray.

11. Bake for 15 minutes until golden and crispy.

*If you don't have a mixer, you can do this by hand, but a mixer is much easier to use.