Gougères
Gougères are the Burgundian snack served with a glass of wine before dinner: choux buns loaded with grated Gruyère, baked deep golden, hollow inside and crisp. They are eaten warm, straight from the tray. Choux paste sounds forbidding, but it is only water and butter, flour cooked on the heat and eggs beaten in one at a time — the whole art is adding exactly as many eggs as the paste will take, and not opening the oven while they bake.
Your own work in that: 10 min.
- Choux paste 20 min
- Shaping 10 min
- Baking 55 min
- Drying out 10 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneBoil the liquids
Bring the water, milk, butter and salt to the boil in a heavy pan. The butter must melt completely before the liquid boils.
Ingredients: 130 ml water · 130 ml milk · 100 g butter · 150 g plain flour · 4 pcs eggs · ½ tsp salt · ¼ tsp nutmeg · ¼ tsp black pepper
Cook the flour
Off the heat, tip in all the flour at once and beat hard with a wooden spoon. Return to low heat and stir 2 minutes, until the paste forms a smooth ball that leaves the sides and a thin film on the base.
Ingredients: 130 ml water · 130 ml milk · 100 g butter · 150 g plain flour · 4 pcs eggs · ½ tsp salt · ¼ tsp nutmeg · ¼ tsp black pepper
It pulls away from the sides — that is the point.Cool the paste
Transfer to a bowl and stir for a minute to let the steam escape. It should be warm, not hot, or the eggs will scramble.
Ingredients: 130 ml water · 130 ml milk · 100 g butter · 150 g plain flour · 4 pcs eggs · ½ tsp salt · ¼ tsp nutmeg · ¼ tsp black pepper
Beat in the eggs
Add the eggs one at a time, beating until each is fully absorbed. After the third, check the texture: the paste should fall slowly from the spoon in a V. Add the fourth egg only if it is still too stiff.
Ingredients: 130 ml water · 130 ml milk · 100 g butter · 150 g plain flour · 4 pcs eggs · ½ tsp salt · ¼ tsp nutmeg · ¼ tsp black pepper
The paste falls from the spoon in a V.Add the cheese
Stir in three quarters of the grated cheese, the mustard, nutmeg and pepper. Keep the rest for the tops.
Ingredients: 120 g Gruyère, grated · 1 tsp Dijon mustard
Shape the buns
Heat the oven to 200°C. Spoon or pipe walnut-sized mounds (about 20 g) onto lined trays, 4 cm apart. This batch makes about 38, which is two trays. Flatten the peaks with a wet finger.
Ingredients: 130 ml water · 130 ml milk · 100 g butter · 150 g plain flour · 4 pcs eggs · ½ tsp salt · ¼ tsp nutmeg · ¼ tsp black pepper
Walnut-sized, 4 cm apart.Bake
Scatter with the remaining cheese and bake 25–30 minutes, until well risen and deep golden. Do not open the oven for the first 20 minutes — they will collapse and never rise again. Bake one tray at a time, on the middle shelf; the second can wait on the worktop, choux paste does not suffer.
Ingredients: 120 g Gruyère, grated · 1 tsp Dijon mustard
Dry and serve
Pierce each bun with a sharp knife to let the steam out and leave them in the switched-off oven, door ajar, for 10 minutes. Serve warm.
Ingredients: 130 ml water · 130 ml milk · 100 g butter · 150 g plain flour · 4 pcs eggs · ½ tsp salt · ¼ tsp nutmeg · ¼ tsp black pepper
Before you start
Which cheese
Gruyère is classic, but Comté, Emmental or a mature hard cheese all work. It must be firm and full-flavoured — young, wet cheese releases water and the buns sink. A mature Gouda is the cheapest sensible stand-in.
Make ahead
Freeze the raw mounds on a tray, then bag them. Bake from frozen, adding 5 minutes.
Storage
Gougères are best on the day. Keep them in a tin for 2 days and refresh 5 minutes at 180°C to crisp them again.
