GOUGÈRES: CHEESE PUFFS

Gougères are light and delicious cheese puffs made with pâte à choux, the same pastry dough that's used for profiteroles, eclairs, etc. It's a quick and fairly easy dough to make, somewhat fool-proof since it relies on aerating rather than a rising agent like baking powder or yeast.

Typically, gougères are made with Comté or Gruyère cheese, but really any cheese that melts will be fine if you don't specifically want the flavours of Comté or Gruyère cheese. This time, since I was pairing them with a slew of southern Rhône wines, I used a mix of Comté and Füürtüfel - a terrific spicy Swiss cheese.

GOUGÈRES: CHEESE PUFFS

makes: ~20 medium gougères

- Equipment: hand mixer with two beaters

- 1 cup milk

- 1 cup all-purpose flour

- 3 large eggs

- 4 tablespoons butter

- 1/4 teaspoon salt

- 1-1/2 cups grated Comté, Gruyère or other Swiss cheese

- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)

Optional: Fleur de sel to sprinkle on top before baking

1. Bring the milk, butter and salt (and cayenne, if using) to a boil in a medium saucepan. Remove from the heat, add the flour all at once, and mix vigorously with a wooden spatula until the mixture forms a ball, taking care to scrape up all the flour/dough from the base and sides of the pan. Return the pan to medium-low heat and cook for about 1 minute to dry the mixture a bit. Stir to make sure the dough doesn't stick to the pan. Remove from the heat and let cool for 5 minutes.
2. Add the eggs and use the hand mixer to mix thoroughly and aerate for 4-5 minutes. Let the choux pastry dough cool for 7-10 minutes.
3. Preheat the oven to 400 °F/200 °C. Line 1 large or 2 medium baking trays with parchment paper.
4. Add the grated cheese to the dough and stir just enough to incorporate. Use 2 spoons - 1 to scoop the gougère dough and 1 to help drop it on to the baking sheet - to place the dough on the baking tray, spaced ~2 inches apart. Sprinkle a few grains of the coarse salt, if using, on each gougère.
5. Bake for about 30 minutes, until browned. Do *not* open the oven while the gougéres are baking or they might: not puff up, deflate after cooling, remain dense!
6. Remove from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes. Serve lukewarm or at room temperature with wine - including champagne - or any other beverage.

GOUGÈRES: BAKED CHEESE PUFFS

The French have done it again. They may have been fashionably late in nearly every one of the America's Cup races here in San Francisco, but they've been trailblazers when it comes to revolutions. I'm referring to revolutions of our taste buds, of course. Not any that were the consequence of inappropriately timed discussions on whether the members of the public ought to eat cake.

So back to the French and their food alchemy... take the gougère for example. Flour, eggs, cheese, salt, pepper. And sometimes herbs or other seasonings. All spooned onto a tray and baked for a bit. Et voila! Un amuse-bouche, comme il faut! Make them a bit large, make them quite small and bite-sized, serve as an amuse-bouche, or hors d'oeuvre. However you serve them, they're delicious. They're perfect even if you don't have company. On evenings when you're feeling peckish and want just wine, olives, nuts, crudités, and something just a bit more.

This is quite a versatile recipe. Usually I use Gruyère or Comté (the French version of Gruyère, and also called Gruyère de Comté) cheese and don't add much other than salt and pepper. But this time around I had the last bit of parsley and a serrano pepper that needed to be used, a lovely hunk of salty, grainy Pecorino Romano and a small bit of aged Gouda so I used those. The important thing is to use good quality cheese since you will definitely taste it. Also be careful when using soft wet cheeses like blue cheese or goat cheese because they can make the dough too wet, causing the gougères to deflate. They'll still taste fine, so if this happens, no need to panic.

Gougères will keep their shape even after cooled, so make them a few hours or even a day ahead of when you want to serve them. Rewarm in a 350 F / 180 C oven for 5-7 minutes or until warmed, and enjoy!

Gougères: Baked Cheese Puffs

Makes: approximately 30 gougères

- 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp water
- 3 tbsp butter, salted or unsalted, cut into cubes
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 large eggs
- 1/4 cup minced parsley

- 1 serrano pepper, finely chopped 

- 3 ounces (approx. 3/4 cup) grated cheese, Pecorino Romano, Gruyère, Comté, or a combination of cheeses

- 1/4 teaspoon salt (optional) - You won't need salt if you use salty cheese like Pecorino Romano, Grana Padano, or Parmigiano Reggiano.

1. Preheat the oven to 425F / 220 C. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Heat the water, butter, and salt, if using, 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.
4. Remove from heat and let the dough rest for a couple of minutes - this is important!
5. Add the eggs, one at a time, stirring quickly to make sure the eggs don’t ‘cook’. The batter will look a bit lumpy, but after a minute or so, as you stir it will smooth out. (You can do this step of mixing in the eggs in a food processor or electric mixer, but I've never needed to do that.)
6. Add the grated cheese, parsley, and chopped serrano, and stir everything until well-mixed.
7. Make small 1 in. balls from the dough and put on the baking tray. If your dough is wetter and can't be rolled into balls - sometimes mine is, depending on what cheese I use of how large the eggs are - use two spoons to mound the mixture on to the baking tray.
8. Bake for 10 minutes, then turn the oven down to 375 F / 190 C and bake for an additional 15 minutes, until the gougères are completely golden brown.
9. Serve warm.