Gougères

By corlear

Gougères, savory fluffy, golden pastries laced with small cubes of nutty Gruyère cheese, are the quintessential Burgundian hors d’oeuvre. These warm little mouthfuls were originally served at wine tastings to complement yet not compete with the taste of Burgundy wines. Now they almost always appear with an apéritif, kir or otherwise, at hotels and restaurants throughout the region. And no local festivity seems complete without an aromatic basket of freshly baked gougères on the scene.

In Burgundy, they would never think of making anything but the traditional Gruyère-flavored gougère, but once the vast Atlantic has separated me from the disapproving eye of rigid French traditionalists, I find all sorts of flavor creativity hard to resist.

With all due respect, here is an excellent traditional gougère recipe, followed rebeffiously arid irresistibly (I think) by some of my more successftil variations.

Ingredients

• Herbs:
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 5 large eggs
• 1 heaping tablespoon imported Dijon mustard
• Salt and freshly ground white pepper to taste
• Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
• Pinch of cayenne pepper
• 1 1/2 cups finely diced French or Swiss Gruyère cheese
• Flavor options, if using (see below)
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 1/4 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
• Add 1/2 cup assorted minced herbs—parsley, chives, chervil, dill, and/or tarragon.
• Provençal:
• Add 2 cloves garlic, minced, 12 minced sun-dried tomato halves, and ¼ cup shredded fresh basil.
• Roquefort:
• Substitute 1 1/2 cups crumbled Roquefort cheese for the Gruyère in step 3.

Preparation

Step 1

The directions for this recipe are missing from the book.