Lite and Airy Cheese and Citrus-Chive Gougeres
World's Best Cheese Snack Ever!
Posted By Savita
Cheese and Citrus-Chive Gougères will be the best, most lite and airy french cheese puffs your have ever put in you mouth! I promise you that! For those who are new to term Gougère, Gougères are french pastry snack, a baked savory choux pastry made of choux dough mixed with cheese.
Making lite and completely hollow gougères is all about right quantity of ingredients to make batter (called choux dough). Leave choux dough little thick and gougères will crack at the top or choux dough little thin and gougères will fall flat.
After a number of failed attempts, I FINALLY figured it out. It took me a while to experiment and come up with the right amount of every ingredient for choux dough.
e.g Look at this picture above, the gougères picture on the left-side had 1/2 egg extra than the final picture on the right. Choux dough is that sensitive :)
But once you have right quantity of each ingredient, you can do wonders and can make world's most lite, airy and hollow gougères almost like cloud pillows!
See, the best part, I have already done aaaall the experiment work for you! This recipe is perfect and has never failed to give me the-best gougères.
Once I perfected the recipe, I tried several flavors with gougères. Most common you will find all over internet are Nutmeg-Gruyère Cheese gougère. The one, I am sharing today has two cheeses, my favorite, sharp cheddar and mild asiago, with garlic chives and orange zest to counter the richness.
Gougères are a perfect make-ahead snack. I often make a large batch, like 50/60 gougères and then freeze a few batches for later use. If we have any friends visiting or any surprise guest showing up, by the time coffee is ready, I re-heat Gougères in toaster oven or in conventional oven at 350 F for 10-12 minutes.
I loved this batch of Gougères for cheesy chive-citrus flavor and I am always fan of lite-hollow texture., you just usher-in a gougère in mouth and it disappears!!
Recently, I also made a savory gougère batch which I filled with honey-mascarpone. even though gougères are delightful on their on, sweet filling made'em even more scrumptious. Trust me!! Since I tasted filled gougères, I believe these hollow pockets are meant to be filled with some creamy goodness, just like cream-puffs!! I had no time to take pictures or I could have shared some of them here. may be next time!
For now, bake and enjoy fresh gougères at home. Just follow the ingredient quantity exactly and you will be sharing your excited opinion with me soon!
Happy Cooking!!
~Savita
Pairing Ideas:
Ingredients
- 2 Egg(s) (plus 1 egg for egg wash)
- 1/2 Cup Cheddar Cheese (plus 2-3 tbsp extra for sprinkling on Gougère before baking)
- 3 tbsp Chives (garlic chives, fine chopped)
- 1/4 Cup Asiago Cheese
- 2 tbsp Unsalted Butter
- 1/2 tbsp Oranges (zest of orange)
- 1/2 Cup Water
- 1/2 Cup All-Purpose Flour
- 1/8 tsp Cayenne Pepper
- 1/8 tsp Kosher Salt
Directions
-
1. Preheat oven at 400 F. Ready all the ingredients like grate cheese., line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. If you don't have pastry bag, then use make-shift ziploc bag, fill with choux dough as instructed below then cut 1/2 inch on one edge. -
2. Choux Dough - Heat water in a saucepan, add butter, cayenne and salt, heat until butter has just melted. -
3. Heat until butter has just melted. -
4. Remove butter water from heat. Add flour and whisk quickly to combine. Return the pan to heat. -
5. On medium heat, whisk the mixture until a thin film of flour forms on the bottom and sides of pan. Don't let flour burn or turn brown. -
6. Transfer the flour mixture, cheeses, 2 tbsp chive, orange zest into a stand mixer bowl. Add eggs, one at time and beat at low speed to mix the ingredients using whisk attachment (just until combined) -
7. Laddle mixture into piping bag and make about 1 inch thick dots 1-2 inches apart on parchment-lined baking sheet. Mix 1 egg with 1 tbsp water and brush choux dough dots. Top each dot with few 1/2 tsp of grated cheese and few chives. -
8. Bake at 400 for 20-23 minutes or until tops are light brown. Transfer to wire rack to cool down completely. Serve warm or at room temperature. And enjoy!! Additional Notes:
You can also freeze Gougère once at room temperature in an airtight bag. Reheat in OTG or oven at 350 F for 10 minutes.
Savita's Recipe Notes:
These pillow-y, cheese-y side treats are great for thanksgiving dinner.
Also freeze well, just reheat and enjoy anytime! Reheat in OTG or oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes.
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