Gougères

Gougères are one of the best recipes to have in your repertoire: they look fancy, are easy to make and are real crowd-pleasers!  Plus you’re learning one of the most basic French batters, a pâte à choux dough, which is so multi-purpose that it swerves from cream puffs and eclairs, to profiteroles, to gougères with ease.  These are great appetizers for dinner parties or holiday entertaining (hint hint: Thanksgiving, eh?).  You can make ahead and reheat in a low oven right before your guests come over.

What is a gougère you ask?  How do you even say gougère?!  Well, my friends, it’s a French cheese puff and it’s pronounced GOO-JER (think ‘Jerry’ with a soft J) and it’s wonderfully cheesy and hollow inside.  Serve warm or at room temperature-although warm is best.

Since they’re hollow inside, you can split them open and fill them with anything that tickles your fancy…more cheese, perhaps?  Or chicken salad, egg salad, make into mini tea sandwiches, and on and on and on.

If you’ve never made pâte à choux, let’s walk through it.  Water and butter are combined in a saucepan over medium heat just until melted, then flour is added all at once.  The dough will clump up into a ball; just continue to stir it until a light film is visible on the bottom of the saucepan.  Transfer to a bowl and let cool for a few minutes before adding the eggs and stirring vigorously.  You will think there is no way the dough will come together, but I promise it will!  Stir in any flavorings (here we’ll use nutty Gruyère, chives and thyme) you’d like to add and spoon into equal-sized mounds on a baking sheet.  Make sure there are no points of dough sticking up; if there are, just wet your finger and gently press them down.  This will ensure they don’t burn in the oven!  Bake ’em up and enjoy.  Keep in mind that these are dangerously easy to pop in your mouth and will disappear quickly!

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