Gougeres

Last month, I was at a Borders bookshop in Panama City and saw the prettiest book on French patisseries.  I *think* it was this one.  When I got home, I checked out a different book on patisseries with recipes and it included one for gougeres, which are really what we might think of as airy cheese biscuits or cheese puffs.  A fan of cheese biscuits, cheese crackers, cheese straws, cheese rounds and other various iterations of cheesy deliciousness, I really wanted to try making these myself.  

Oh, and I took German in school as my second language, not French, so I had to look it up to be certain, and ‘gougeres’ is pronounced “goo-ZHAIR” like this.  Just in case you’re lost like me.

I didn’t go exactly by the recipe in the book — changed around a few things — but the finished product turned out to be fantastically delicious gougeres.

Ingredients (this makes about 24-30 regular-size gougeres):
7 tbsp butter
1 cup water
1 tbsp salt
1-1/2 cup flour
6 large eggs
2 cups shredded gruyere

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400*.

1.) Add to a small saucepan the butter, water, and salt, and bring to a boil.
Bring the heat down to medium and add the flour, and stir together well (2.)
3.) Keep stirring until the flour is completely incorporated, and finally as in pic 4, it will start to form a bit of a film on the bottom of the pan:

This is the point at which the eggs are added.  The Kitchenaid makes this so much easier — just mixing enough so everything is together.  Now mix with the Kitchenaid 1-3/4 cups of the grated gruyere into the dough:

Onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, use a piping bag (I just use a ziploc bag with one of the corners cut to pipe) or use a spoon:

Sprinkle evenly with the remaining gruyere.

Bake at 400* until beautifully browned — 18 to 25 minutes:

Wonderful.