Cheese Gougères

One of my favourite hors d’oeuvres to serve with drinks before a dinner.

(makes 3/ 4 dozen puffs) 

Cheese Gougeres.jpg

  • 1 cup cold water

  • 7 tbs unsalted butter

  • 2 tsp sea salt

  • 1 pinch white sugar

  • 1 1/4 cup white flour

  • 4 to 5 large eggs

  • 1 1/3 cup shredded emmental or gruyere cheese

  • fresh ground white pepper

Preheat the oven to 450 F, then combine water, sugar, salt and butter in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Once the butter has melted stir in the flour reduce the heat to medium, then stir for 2 minutes. This dries the dough as you want to take out all the excess water you can -,it will form a ball ..

Next, transfer to a bowl beat with a wooden spoon. Or this can be done in a mixer with a paddle add one egg at a time beating to incorporate you want the dough soft enough to just fall off a spoon and still keep some shape not runny and not so stiff that you have to scrape off the spoon. Stir in 1cp of cheese spoon or pipe the dough on to a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper the mounds should be a generous tbsp in size with 2” between each mound. Sprinkle with remaining cheese bake for about 7-8 minutes and then lower the heat to 350 F and bake for about 20 minutes more. 

Serve warm for the best experience.

horsdoeuvresdanielle acken