Gougères come from the Burgundy region of France and are commonly served accompanying champagne. They are light savory pâte à choux cheese puffs and they are currently my favorite bite to serve dinner guests before a big meal.
I’m not a big Champagne drinker, though I’ll drink like I am one when it’s around. Why hold back when you can just go for it? I will say that several years ago, while still living in San Francisco I might have had a mini champagne (not the real stuff! ) drinking problem and would often find myself with a glass in hand on my balcony with certain enablers before noon most weekends. I was 25 and for us Canadians living in the US a $2 bottle of Champagne-like-stuff was as good as free. Do you have any idea how much booze is taxed in Canada? That same bottle would cost like $17 here. We had to get it while we could. Plus we needed all of the money we could to shop at this place aka heaven on earth.
Anyway gougères, as far as serving these I definitely wouldn’t limit myself to those occasions involving Champagne. I think they pare perfectly with cocktails of all kinds and won’t fill people up too much in the process.
I recently made a few batches for my girlfriend’s hen party and thought I had definitely made too much, I couldn’t have been more wrong. I forget how much these ladies can eat. Look at those faces do they say moderation to you?
She’s going to kill me for posting the picture below, but you can see the empty pot of gougères to the right of her head.
You should definitely give these a try as soon as you can, but make sure to bake them just before your guests arrive or they may not be any left when they do.
Gougères – makes approximately 30- Adapted from David Lebovitz
If this is your first time making gougères I would highly recommend taking a peek over to David Lebovitz as he has some great pointers and troubleshoots some common problems.
1/2 cup water
3 tablespoons butter, cut into cube
1/4 teaspoon salt
freshly-ground black pepper
1/2 cup flour
2 large eggs
12 chives, finely-minced
3/4 cup grated Gruyere cheese
First, preheat your oven to 425 F and line a baking sheet with parchment.
In a medium sized heavy bottom pot heat the water, butter, salt, pepper until the butter is melted.
Dump in the flour all at once and stir vigorously until the flour pulls away from the sides and forms a ball. This happens quite quickly.
Take the pot off of the heat and add in the eggs one at a time stirring between each addition.
Add in 3/4 of the grated cheese and chives and mix until combined.
Transfer mixture to a pastry bag fitted with a plain tip and pipe the dough into small mounds. If you don’t have a pastry bag you could spoon the dough out also. You want the mounds to be about the size of a small cherry tomato as they do expand and rise when the bake.
Top each off with a little of the remaining cheese.
Bake in the oven for 10 minutes at 425 f, then reduce the heat 375 f and bake for an additional 20 – 25 minutes or until they are golden brown.
Serve warm.
That candy necklace as no match for your tasty cheese puffs!