Gougères ~ French Cheese Puffs

I have been feeling all "blues" lately, I am just not to myself and I guess it is just normal to get this kind feeling sometimes.

On and off, we do want to get motivate but somehow or rather the past week nothing had made me get my butt up.   But when Hui of Butterfly Waltz posted her Gougères, I have gotten inspired again after reading the content of her post.   The way she described it, " ^^ WE SOOOO LOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE IT! ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^", I guess I shouldn't have anymore excuses to feel blues anymore.

Have you by the way heard of Gougères ?  I think I have or maybe not, even though I might have come across it previously.  
Well, Gougères, is a French cuisine.  It is a baked savoury choux pastry made of choux dough mixed with cheese.  It is very similarly like cream puff but only thing is gougères does not need any filling in it.

Gougères ~ French Cheese Puffs
Recipe adapted from Hui of ButterflyWaltz

 Ingredients
1/2 cup (125ml) water
3 tablespoons (40g) butter, salted or unsalted, cut into cubes
1/4 teaspoon salt
Big pinch of chilli powder, or a few turns of freshly-ground black pepper
1/2 cup (70g) flour
2 large eggs
1 to 2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme (I used dried parsley)
3/4 cup (90g) grated cheese (I used parmesan cheese)

1. Preheat the oven to 220C.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Heat the water, butter, salt, and chile or pepper in a saucepan until the butter is melted.
3. Dump in the flour all at once and stir vigorously until the mixture pulls away from the
    sides into a smooth ball. Remove from heat and let rest two minutes.
4. Add the eggs, one at a time, stirring quickly to make sure the eggs don’t ‘cook.’ The batter 
    will first appear lumpy, but after a minute or so, it will smooth out. (You can transfer the 
    mixture to a bowl before adding to eggs to cool the dough, or do this step in a food 
    processor or electric mixer, if you wish.)
5. Add about 3/4s of the grated cheese and mince herbs, and stir until well-mixed.
6. Scrape the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a wide plain tip and pipe the dough into 
    mounds, evenly-spaced apart, making each about the size of a small cherry tomato.
   * If you do not have a pastry bag, you can always scoop out with your small spoon.

7. Top each puff with a bit of the remaining cheese, then pop the baking sheet in the oven.
8. Bake for 10 minutes, then turn the oven down to 190C and bake for an additional
    20 to 25 minutes, until they’re completely golden brown.
    *  I baked the puff at 190C and adjust accordingly once the puff is brown on top.

For extra-crispy puffs, five minutes before they’re done, poke the side of each puff with a sharp knife to release the steam, and return to the oven to finish baking.
Serving: The puffs are best served warm, and if making them in advance, you can simply pipe the gougères on baking sheets and cook right before your guests arrive, or reheat the baked cheese puffs in a low oven for 5-10 minutes before serving. 

Original recipe from David Lebovitz

  
You may used grated cheddar cheese and top with parmesan cheese instead.

As this is a savoury puff, you can always serve with some chopped ham as filling

 I'm having it (oh, I almost finished all of the puffs by myself.....) with my frothy milk tea!

Thank you Hui..... for getting me back to my feet up and going in my kitchen again!


My dear Sister S, do try to make this for Tiffany and I am sure she will loves this too!


By the way, do you know how to pronounce "gougère" in French?  it is some like this 
                        "goo shel".  You may like to listen how it was pronounce here