Ultimately, I cook for others because I want to be liked. If you bring the cake, someone will always be your friend. So I like to have a few standby, easy to make, crowd pleasing recipes on hand.
Tonight we had a gathering to celebrate my neighbours 86th birthday. No small occasion I’m sure you’ll agree. But apart from “bring a plate” I had no idea what to prepare, for how many, sweet? savory? *shrug*.
I toyed with Quiche, pavlova, chocolate eclairs…as I was out last night it had to be something I could whip up after work, and as it was raining, with something in my pantry. Aha! Gougères! Small choux pastry puffs of cheesy goodness.
This recipe started with Damien Pignolet in his fantastic book “French”, and grew from there.
Preheat oven to 220 Degrees c
150ml water
150ml milk (fullfat preferably)
120g butter (cut into small cubes) ( 6 metric tablespoons i.e. 20ml each)
150 plain flour (sifted onto a sheet of greaseproof paper) (1.2 metric cups of flour i.e. 250ml)
4 eggs lightly beaten
about 3 tablespoons of cheese cut into a 5mm dice (Gruyere is traditional, but Comte or Cheddar is just as good)
A few sprigs of a herb to complement – I like chervil, but parsley or celery leaves would all be ok. If you’re not sure, try some of the herb and the cheese together. If they taste OK, then use them! If they don’t, choose something else or leave it out all together.
A pinch of nutmeg, salt and pepper.
Heat the water, milk and butter in a smallish saucepan over a low-medium heat. You want the butter to melt before it comes to the boil.
When it boils, take the saucepan off the hear and “shoot” the flour in, all at once and stir until it forms a thick paste.
Put the saucepan back on a medium heat, and stir the paste for 30secs to a minute until it forms a smooth ball and comes away from the sides.
Put the paste into a stand mixer (or you can do this stage by hand in the saucepan) and leave to cool for five minutes. With the mixer on slow (about 2) and using the paddle mixer (or K-blade) add the eggs in small amounts (4 – 5 batches) mixing very well in between each batch. You will have a smooth shiny paste.
Stir in the cheese and herbs, and taste for salt and pepper. I like to use celery salt (you can make this at home easily).
Spoon or pipe teaspoon size portions onto trays lined with baking paper, about 20 to the tray.
Bake for about 8 mins until the puffs are puffy and brown, then turn the oven down to 160degrees and cook for a further ten.
Serve warm with a glass of champagne makes about 50 puffs.
The mix is quite forgiving, you can have it ready to go, and wait until the last minute to bake them. You can bake them for the first 8 mins, then cool them, and do the second baking later (they will flop, but will rise again. They won’t be as good as fresh cooked, but they will be perfectly acceptable). You can freeze them once they are fully cooked, so long as you freeze them when they are still warm.
These photo show the various stages of turning the paste into batter.
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