A cheese gougères is basically a savory choux pastry: cheese is blended in to the batter and sprinkled on top. This serves well as an elegant bread to accompany any dish. I have aspirations to fill my next batch with a crème fraîche chive or thyme filling, or even adding 1-2 tsp of fresh thyme to the dough with the cheese. Be careful with the size of the batter on the bake sheet: too big and they’ll be overdone on the outside and underdone in the middle.
Comté Gougères
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Prep Time:
15m
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Cook Time:
25m
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Total Time:
45m
Ingredients
- 1/4 c Water
- 1/4 c Milk
- 1/4 c Butter (1/2 stick), cut into tablespoons
- 1/2 c All-purpose flour
- 2 Large eggs
- 1/2 c Comté cheese, shredded
- 2 tbsp. Asiago or gruyère cheese, finely grated (optional, or more comté)
- 1 pinch Salt (if using unsalted butter)
- 1 pinch Freshly ground pepper
- 1 pinch Freshly grated nutmeg
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicon bake mat.
- In a medium saucepan, combine water, milk, butter and salt and bring to a boil. Stir in the flour with a sturdy wooden spoon until a smooth dough forms. Continue to stir over low heat until the batter dries out and pulls away from the pan, about 3 minutes (this intends to cook out the flavor of the flour).
- Transfer the dough into a bowl, let cool for 1-2 minutes. Check with your finger, it should be hot yet not burning (you don't want it to cook the eggs in the next step).
- Beat the eggs into the dough one at a time, mixing thoroughly between each one.
- Stir in the cheese and a pinch of both pepper and nutmeg.
- Transfer the dough to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch round tip. Pipe table-spoon size mounds onto the baking sheets 2 inches apart. Sprinkle with grated cheese cheese.
- Bake for 15 minutes on the middle rack, then move to the bottom rack and rotate 180. Bake for another 7-10 minutes depending on size, until puffed and golden brown.
- Serve hot, or let cool and refrigerate or freeze. Reheat in the oven at 325°F oven until hot, about 10-15 mins.
