Little cheese choux puffs, golden, crisp outside and soft inside, coming out of the oven just as you raise a glass.
The gougère is Burgundy's choux pastry with cheese folded in: served warm with drinks, it always disappears faster than planned. Made with aged Comté, it smells of hazelnut and browned butter.
It has a reputation for being tricky. In fact, three moves do it all: drying out the dough properly, adding the eggs little by little until the right texture, and never opening the oven while it bakes. This recipe gives you the cues for each one.
Preheat the oven to 200 °C (400 °F), conventional heat (fan heat dries the puffs out before they rise). Line two trays with baking paper. Grate the Comté and dice the rest.
In the saucepan, put the water, milk, diced butter and salt. Heat over medium heat: the butter should be fully melted by the time it boils. As soon as it boils, take it off the heat and tip in all the flour at once. Stir hard with the spoon until you get a smooth ball.
Put the pan back over low heat and stir constantly for 1 to 2 minutes, pressing the dough against the sides. It's ready when it comes away in a single ball and a thin film forms on the bottom of the pan.
Tip the dough into a bowl and let it cool for 3 minutes, stirring to let the steam out. Beat the eggs separately. Add them in four goes, beating hard after each until the dough is smooth again.
Fold in the grated Comté, the nutmeg and two grinds of pepper. Only work the dough long enough to spread the cheese through.
Fill the piping bag and pipe 3 cm mounds, 3 cm apart, holding the bag upright. Mix the yolk and milk, then gently brush each gougère. Sprinkle with the diced Comté.
Bake one tray at a time, in the middle of the oven, for 22 to 25 minutes. Above all, don't open the door for the first 18 minutes: the puffs would collapse. They're done when deep golden, even in the cracks, and light in the hand.
Turn off the oven, open the door a crack (wedge a wooden spoon in it) and leave the gougères for 5 minutes: they stay crisp as they cool. Serve warm.
Check off every step to celebrate.
Baked gougères keep for 2 days in a closed box; reheat for 5 minutes at 180 °C (350 °F) before serving. They freeze very well unbaked: pipe them on the tray, freeze for 2 hours, then bag them. On the day, bake them from frozen, without egg wash, 5 minutes longer.
Usually the oven door was opened too early, or the dough was too runny (too much egg or not dried out enough). They can also sink if they come out before they're deep golden: the inside hasn't set yet.
Yes: the easiest way is to pipe and freeze them unbaked, then bake at the last minute. Baked the day before, they reheat in 5 minutes at 180 °C (350 °F) and get crisp again.
A firm cooked cheese that melts without releasing water: Comté, Gruyère or Beaufort. Avoid very fatty or wet cheeses (mozzarella, raclette): the dough would spread.
Add this recipe to your meal, then come back for appetizers, a drink, cookies with coffee: Popotam brings them together, with the shopping for your whole table and the timeline up to dessert. Free, no account.
