Gougeres French Cheese Puffs Recipes

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment. Set aside.
• In a saucepan, combine 1/2 cup water with the milk, butter, sugar and salt and stir over low heat until the sugar, butter and salt have melted. Raise the heat to medium and bring to a healthy simmer.
• Take from the heat and immediately add the flour. Stir with a wooden spoon until the mixture thickens, is smooth and no flour lumps remain. Return to the heat and cook, stirring, until a film forms on the bottom of the pan. Continue stirring, careful not to scrape up the film, for a minute or two more.
• Transfer the mixture (panade) to a food processor. Mix for a minute to dissipate the heat. Add the eggs one at a time with the processor running. Pay attention to the consistency of the paste. It should be smooth and shiny, so you may only need 3 of the eggs. Stir in the cheese.
• Using a small cookie scoop, scoop generous mounds onto the parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing them an inch apart. Place in the oven, immediately reduce the heat to 375 degrees F and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the cheese puffs are golden brown.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
• Combine the flour with the salt, black pepper, thyme, chili powder, and cayenne pepper in a large bowl.
• Put the milk and butter in a large saucepan and bring to a boil. When the butter melts, turn heat to low. Add the seasoned flour all at once. Stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until the dough forms a ball. Remove from heat.
• Separate the white and yolk from one egg, reserving the yolk for glazing.
• Put the dough into a large mixer bowl. Beat at medium speed for one minute. Then beat in one egg and the extra egg white. Beat until completely absorbed into the dough. Then add the remaining 4 eggs, one at a time, waiting each time until the previous egg is completely absorbed. After all 5 eggs (plus the one egg white) have been incorporated, the dough should be smooth and satiny.
• Add the Parmesan and Gruyere cheeses, and pepperoni if you are using it. Incorporate thoroughly into the dough.
• Use a pastry bag to pipe dough onto 2 ungreased baking sheets. You can also drop dough from a teaspoon. For tiny puffs, mounds should be about 1/2 inch in diameter. From small appetizers, mounds should be 1 inch in diameter. For puffs large enough for filling, mounds should be 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Keep the size of the puffs uniform so they bake properly. Space puffs about 1 inch apart.
• Beat the remaining egg yolk with 2 tablespoons of milk to make a glaze. Lightly brush the tops of the puffs with glaze before baking. Sprinkle tops with your Parmesan cheese.
• Bake in pre-heated oven for 10 minutes (5 minutes for tiny puffs). Reduce heat to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Bake 10 minutes more for tiny puffs; 15 to 20 minutes longer for medium or large puffs, or until puffs are golden brown. Test by removing a puff from the oven and breaking it open. The inside should be baked through. If it is still doughy or wet, bake another 5 minutes.
• Remove pans from oven and leave puffs on pans until cool enough to serve.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 425.
• Add butter, salt, pepper and nutmeg to 1 cup water in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
• When butter melts, reduce the heat to low.
• Add flour to saucepan all at once and beat with a wooden spoon over low heat for about a minute until mixture pulls away from sides of the pan.
• Remove pan from heat.
• Add cheese to pan and beat with wooden spoon until thoroughly mixed.
• Add 4 eggs, one at a time, beating each into the batter until well mixed before adding the next.
• Continue beating mixture until it is smooth, shiny and firm.
• Drop batter in small spoonfuls onto a lightly greased baking sheet.
• Beat remaining egg with 1/2 tbsp water, then brush tops of uncooked gougeres with egg wash.
• Bake in upper third of the over for 15-20 minutes or until golden and doubled in size.
• Remove from oven serve hot or can be served at room temperature.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350F degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment.
• To make the Choux paste, combine the milk, butter and salt in a sauce pan and place over medium heat until butter melts and the mixture comes to a full boil.
• Add the flour all at once, stirring until the mixture has formed a smooth paste and pulls away from the sides of the pan, about 3 minutes.
• Transfer the paste to a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or may be mixed by hand).
• Add the eggs, one at a time, and mix on medium speed (or mix by hand vigorously), incorporating each egg completely before adding the next egg. Scrape down the sides of the bowl before adding each egg. When all of the eggs have been added the mixture will be thick, smooth and shiny.
• Add the cheese, pepper and thyme, and gently mix in by hand with a rubber spatula.
• Transfer the mixture to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2 inch plain or round tip (no. 6 or 7), filling it about 1/3 of the way full so it is still easy to handle. Pipe the mixture out onto the parchment, making quarter size (about 1 inch) mounds. Leave about 1 1/2 inch space between the mounds. Or, you can use a spoon to drop the mounds onto the parchment, but it is harder to control the thick mixture.
• The mounds may have cheese poking out in odd directions. With a wet finger just pat the mound into a more uniform shape.
• To make the topping, whisk together the egg and salt. Brush the tops of the mounds and then sprinkle with the cheese.
• Place the Gougères immediately into the preheated oven and don�t open the door until they are nicely browned or they may collapse.
• Bake until they have puffed and are nicely browned, about 25-30 minutes.
• They are delicious served hot, warm or room temperature. They can also be frozen in an airtight container, and re-crisped directly from the freezer in an 350F degree oven for 5 minutes.

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Heat water, butter, salt, and chili powder in a saucepan over medium-low heat until the butter is melted.
• Dump in 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 for 2 minutes, to cool it down a bit. At this point, you can scrape the dough into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. If you don't have a mixer, let it cool in the pan, stirring it a few times to let the heat escape.
• Add eggs, one at a time, stirring quickly to make sure the eggs don't cook. The batter will first appear lumpy, but after 1 minute or so, it will smooth out. After the eggs have been added, let cool until tepid.
• When the dough has cooled, stir in a generous 1/2 cup Gruyere cheese until well mixed. (If dough is not cool, the cheese will melt.)
• Scrape the dough into a pastry bag fitted with a wide, plain tip. Pipe into mounds, evenly spaced apart, making each about the size of a small cherry tomato. Top each puff with a bit of the remaining cheese.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 5 minutes, then turn the oven down to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Continue to bake until completely golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes.