Gougeres for the Win!

These little puffs of crispy pastry are an absolute gift to anyone who cooks. Choux pastry — once you make it the first time you understand how fabulous these are. Make them plain and they are profiteroles (pour some fudge sauce over them). Add cheese and herbs and they become gougeres for cocktail nibbles (eat them as is or cut them open and fill with all sorts of things such as egg salad or smoked trout). Make them plain and bigger and they’re cream puffs. Lots of variations. Here’s one for Choux pastry swans.

In the meantime, here’s the recipe for gougeres:

Herb and Cheese Gougeres (Choux Puffs)

• 1 cup minus 2 tablespoons water

• 1/4 pound unsalted butter, cut into chunks

• 1 cup all purpose flour

• 3/4 teaspoon salt

• 4 large eggs

• 1-1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh mixed herbs, or 1-1/2 teaspoons dried

• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan or Gruyere cheese

• pinch cayenne pepper

• egg glaze: 1 large egg mixed with 2 teaspoons water, optional

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Cook the water and butter in a saucepan over medium heat. When the butter has melted, add the flour and salt all at once. Stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until the mixture is well blended and begins to come away from the sides of the pan. Remove pan from the heat and let the
mixture cool for 2-3 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, blending thoroughly after each addition. Add the herbs, cheese and cayenne pepper and blend them in thoroughly. Drop 1-inch mounds of dough from a teaspoon onto a lightly greased baking sheet. Leave space between the mounds for the puffs to rise. For a
shiny surface on the puffs, lightly brush the tops of the mounds with some of the egg wash. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until the puffs are lightly brown and crispy. Lower the heat to 300 degrees and bake for another 5-6 minutes. Turn off the heat but leave the puffs in the oven for 3-4 minutes. Serve hot or at room temperature. Or cut them open and fill them.

Makes about 60

Herb and Chorizo Gougeres

My mother always said “don’t try out new recipes on guests.” Because what if the recipe doesn’t work or we don’t like it and so on and so on and then there might be nothing to eat.

Well, first, there is never nothing to eat at my house. Because my mother’s other advice (shown by example) was to have a freezer full of food “just in case.”

Second, because I like to try new recipes and who else could I try them on if not for the people who dine at my table?

Usually what I do when I have a dinner party is to make one new dish. All my friends know there will be some experiment or other for them to taste and comment about.

But next Sunday I am having lots of people over to celebrate the birth of our granddaughter Carina (I am a little slow, she is now 7 months old) and several of the dishes I will be serving are experiments.

Only I took my mother’s advice. I tried them out first so I know they work.

One of the hors d’oeuvre I worked on was gougeres, the wonderful, crispy baked French cheese puffs. I’ve made them a zillion times, so no problem there. 

But I needed to make them dairy-free.

How do you make gougeres without butter and cheese?

I substituted Earth Balance buttery sticks for the butter. And instead of mixing in grated cheese I added finely chopped chorizo sausage (I used Jack’s Gourmet), which gave the puffs the characteristic tangy taste needed for a good gougere.

Voila! Followed my mom’s advice and have plenty in the freezer just in case.

Here’s the recipe:

Herb and Chorizo Gougeres 

1 cup water

1/4 pound (1/2 cup) Earth Balance Buttery Spread, cut into chunks

1 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon salt

4 large eggs

2 tablespoons chopped fresh mixed herbs

1/2 cup finely chopped chorizo (one Jack’s Gourmet chorizo)

pinch cayenne pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place the water and Earth Balance in a saucepan over medium heat. When the Earth Balance has melted, add the flour and salt all at once. Stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until the mixture is well blended and begins to come away from the sides of the pan. Remove the pan from the heat and let cool for 2-3 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, blending well after each addition. Add the herbs, chorizo and cayenne pepper and blend them in thoroughly. Lightly grease and flour a baking sheet. Drop 1-inch mounds of dough from a teaspoon onto the sheet. Leave space between the mounds for the puffs to rise. Bake for 20 minutes or until the puffs are lightly brown and crispy. Lower the heat to 300 degrees and bake for another 5-6 minutes. Turn off the heat but leave the puffs in the oven for 3-4 minutes. Serve hot or at room temperature. Makes about 60

Herb and Cheese Gougeres (Choux Puffs)

Gougeres are the easiest and also the hardest hors d’oeuvre to cook.

I say that because they are easy to make once you get the knack. But I admit, they’re a little tricky for first-timers, so you need a few pointers. Which I am going to give you here.

Then once you make them a couple of times you can practically do it in your sleep.

Also, gougeres are extremely useful. I serve them plain, heated to a crisp. But sometimes I serve them at room temperature, cut open and stuffed with all sorts of fillings from plain old egg salad to toasted nuts with cheese or smoked salmon tartare.

And sometimes I fill them with things like mushroom ragout or ratatouille and serve them hot.

Of course, if you make the gougere dough without the herbs and cheese they are …. profiteroles. Which you can fill with ice cream!

Or you can make bigger ones and fill them with ice cream, whipped cream or custard, the way my mother did, and call them Cream Puffs.

It’s all the same dough. The method is the same, so once you get the knack you have this extraordinarily versatile recipe.

I always have gougeres in my freezer. Just in case company comes. Like my daughter Meredith, who loves them and always heats up a few for herself when she’s here.

Or for dinner company or weekend guests, which I am having this weekend.

Or to celebrate Bastille Day, tomorrow, because, well, this is a French recipe. Called choux.

Herb and Cheese Gougeres (Choux Puffs)

1 cup minus 2 tablespoons water

1/4 pound unsalted butter, cut into chunks

1 cup all purpose flour, sifted

3/4 teaspoon salt

4 large eggs

1-1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh mixed herbs, or 1-1/2 teaspoons dried

1/2 cup grated Parmesan or Gruyere cheese

pinch cayenne pepper

egg glaze: 1 large egg mixed with 2 teaspoons water, optional

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Cook the water and butter in a saucepan over medium heat. When the butter has melted, add the flour and salt all at once. Stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until the mixture is well blended and begins to come away from the sides of the pan. Remove pan from the heat and let the mixture cool for 2-3 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, blending well after each addition.* Add the herbs, cheese and cayenne pepper and blend them in thoroughly. 

Butter and flour a baking sheet. Drop 3/4 to 1-inch mounds of dough from a teaspoon onto the sheet. Leave space between the mounds for the puffs to rise. For a shiny surface on the puffs, lightly brush the tops of the mounds with some of the egg wash. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until the puffs are lightly brown and crispy. Lower the heat to 300 degrees and bake for another 5-6 minutes. Turn off the heat but leave the puffs in the oven for 3-4 minutes. Serve hot or at room temperature. Or cut them open and fill them. Makes about 60

*Incorporating the eggs is what most people find difficult. Be sure to add them one at a time. Use a sturdy wooden spoon to help you. The mixture will be sticky and at first you think it will never come together, but keep mixing and you’ll see that it does come together. After each egg is incorporated the mixture becomes softer and pastier and stickier. That’s the way it’s supposed to be.

Sauteed Crispy Potatoes with Rosemary

Do you do the same thing every New Year’s Eve?

We do. But only for the last 35 years or so, so we’re beginning to get the hang of it.

My cousins, brother and sister-in-law will be coming for dinner.

It’s always the same schedule and dinner but we don’t think it’s boring because after years and years of trying this and that, we figured out what we like to eat and to do.

For example, we all know we like roast beef, except Eileen, for whom I will make a chicken breast her favorite way: baked until it’s really really dead and all the juices knocked out of it.

I used to do try a new dish every so often on New Year’s eve. They were mostly fine. But we all still joke about the time, many years ago, when I made the infamous Beef Stroganoff, which was really horrible.

So why not, on this one occasion, just cook something tried and true that happens also to be delicious and everyone (but one) likes and we also rarely get to eat — if ever— during the rest of the year?

Besides it’s also important to make stuff that won’t leave me with too much preparing, serving and cleaning. I want to enjoy the evening too.

We’ll start at 2:00 p.m. with cocktails or wine and hors d’oeuvre, all pre-made, either to serve cold or just pop in the oven. Like cheeseballs (recipe posted yesterday) and smoked fish canapes, gougeres and scallion pancakes.

Dinner will start at 8. Roast beef; one really really dead chicken breast plus a vegetable and ALWAYS Sauteed Potatoes with Rosemary because my cousin Neil loves them and it wouldn’t be New Year’s with that side dish.

Here’s the recipe for those potatoes, which you can pre-cook, up to a point, a day or two before.

Sauteed Crispy Potatoes with Rosemary

18 “new” or small Red Bliss potatoes

lightly salted water

2 tablespoons butter or margarine

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste

freshly ground black pepper to taste

2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary

Place the potatoes in a large saucepan and cover with lightly salted water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Lower the heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until the potatoes are fork tender. Drain the potatoes and peel them when they are cool enough to handle. Cut each potato in half. Heat the butter and olive oil in a saute pan over medium heat. When the butter has melted and looks foamy, add the potatoes and sprinkle them with salt and pepper. Saute for about 10 minutes, turning them from time to time. Sprinkle the rosemary into the pan and cook for another 5-15 minutes or until as crispy as you like them. May be reheated in a preheated 425 degree oven for 6-8 minutes. Makes 6 servings