Gougeres

This was my first attempt at making these tasty cheese puffs! I found the recipe on David Lebovitz's blog and it looked so simple and he included lots of tips for troubleshooting so I couldn't wait to try :) I used a combination of gruyere and parmesan as my cheeses and seasoned the puffs with some black pepper and lemon thyme. mmmm. Sadly, I soon realized I need a lot more experience working with choux pastry... My puffs deflated pretty quickly after they came out of the oven. They were tasty, but not "puffs" which might have been due to underbaking :( Sigh. I think I also had issues with how much batter to put out for one puff. These turned out about half the size of what they were supposed to, judging from the original recipe.. I'm definitely going to give these another shot and conquer choux pastry! These and also cream puffs...mmm cream puffs... but those'll have to wait another few weeks until I have an oven to work with!



Gougeres
adapted from David Lebovitz definitely hop over and visit his site for tips and more :)

1/2 cup (125ml) water
3 tablespoons (40g) butter, salted or unsalted, cut into cubes
1/4 teaspoon salt
a few turns of freshly-ground black pepper
1/2 cup (70g) flour
2 large eggs
1 to 2 teaspoons minced fresh lemon thyme
1/2 cup grated gruyere
1/4 cup grated parmesan


1. Preheat the oven to 425F (220C.) Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone baking mat.

2. Heat the water, butter, salt, and pepper in a saucepan until the butter is melted.

3. Dump in the flour all at once and stir vigorously until the mixture pulls away from the sides into a smooth ball. Remove from heat and let rest two minutes.

4. Add the eggs, one at a time, stirring quickly to make sure the eggs don't 'cook.' The batter will first appear lumpy, but after a minute or so, it will smooth out. (You can transfer the mixture to a bowl before adding to eggs to cool the dough, or do this step in a food processor or electric mixer, if you wish.)

5. Add about 3/4s of the grated cheese and the thyme, and stir until well-mixed.

6. Scrape the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a wide plain tip and pipe the dough into mounds, evenly-spaced apart, making each about the size of a small cherry tomato.

7. Top each puff with a bit of the remaining cheese, the pop the baking sheet in the oven.

8. Bake for 10 minutes, then turn the oven down to 375F (190C) and bake for an additional 20 to 25 minutes, until they're completely golden brown.