Inventing a kitchen pantry from an entrance...

Gougères

(pronounced gooshair) choux pastries 

 Ingredients

1 cup Flour

1/3 cup Salted Butter Cubed
1 cup Water
1 Egg
½ teaspoon Sea Salt
½ teaspoon of your seasoning choice
2 cups Grated Cheese

Preparation:

Preheat oven 400 F
Line two baking sheets with parchment paper

Yields about 36, depending upon size of ball

Method:

In a saucepan, heat water, butter, and salt to boiling.  Once the water begins to boil remove from heat and stir to mix butter and salt into water.  If you wish to season your Gougeres, now is a good time.  I often use ½ teaspoon of seasoning. (see below for seasoning suggestions)

Add flour all at once. Immediately begin to stir vigorously. 

As you begin to stir, the dough will appear very lumpy.  As you stir the flour and water will begin to form a soft dough, and lumps should begin to disappear. 

Continue to stir until smooth.  At this point you should have a nice ball of dough that pulls away from the edges of the sauce pan. 

If the dough is clinging to the edges of the pan, it has too much moisture, and needs to be dried out. Place pan with dough back on to the burner and set at low, heat the dough stirring constantly in an effort to dry it out.  As dough dries out it will pull away from the edges of the pan, and form a ball.    Once ball forms, remove the pan from heat.

Make certain your pan is off  heat. The remainder of steps are completed off heat. Beat egg slightly, then add it to dough.  Stir vigorously to blend the egg into the dough, scraping the edges of the pan.  Be careful not to cook egg.

 Continue stirring, until well blended. Dough at this point will be a bit wet. 

Add the grated cheese, stirring well, until blended into the dough.

Continuing stirring to combine cheese into the dough, blend well, where all grated bits are incorporated. Dough at this point will come together into a soft ball.

Spoon a bit of dough into your hand,  and roll it into a ball using your palms. The ball should be a bit smaller than a golf ball.

Arrange the balls upon prepared, parchment lined baking sheet, leaving approximately 2-3” in between.  (I was out of parchment, forced to bake straight upon the sheet. Be careful if you chose to do bake "naked", you'll need to watch the bottoms closely, so they do not burn.)

 Back at 400 degrees for 18 – 25 minutes, until tops are golden brown.  Began to check at the 18 minute mark.  Length of baking time will very based upon the size of your pastry balls.

Bon appétit

Seasoning Suggestions:

½ Teaspoon of dried or fresh, finely chopped basil, paired with 1 cup grated parmesan and 1 cup grated romano cheese

½ Teaspoon Tony Cachere’s Creole Seasoning, paired with 1 cup grated sharp cheddar, and 1 cup white cheddar  (seasoning I used for this post)

½ Teaspoon Province herbs (lavender, rosemary, thyme), paired with 1 cup grated gruyere, and 1 cup grated parmesan

Be creative and please share your seasoning suggestions.

All the best, until next time -