Williams Sonoma Williams Sonoma Home Pottery Barn Pottery Barn Teen Pottery Barn Kids West Elm Rejuvenation Mark & Graham GreenRow

Gouda Gougères

Rated 0 out of 5
Be the first to Write a Review

Gougères is the French name for cheese puffs, the nibble that’s become Dorie Greenspan’s signature. Visit her, and she’ll greet you at the door with a glass of cold white wine and a bowl of hot-from-the-oven gougères. Because she loves them so much and bakes them so often, she’s made them with dozens of different cheeses (see Playing Around), yet it’s only recently that she discovered how good gougères are made with Gouda. Gouda can range from softish, mild, pale and creamy to hard-enough-to-grate, caramel-colored and sharp. As the cheese ages, its texture firms and its flavor intensifies. The color of its wax coating changes too—young cheeses are covered in red wax, more mature cheeses are wrapped in black wax. Since she loves strong flavors, she prefers older Goudas, but this recipe will work with any Gouda you like, even smoked. (If you want to use smoked cheese, use it as an accent, swapping just one-quarter to half the amount of regular cheese for smoked.)

When Dorie began making gougères with Gouda, she started seasoning the dough with ground cumin and sprinkling the puffs with cumin seeds and flaky salt just before baking. Like more traditional gougères, these are great with white wine, especially a sparkling one, but when there’s Gouda and cumin in the mix, beer’s a good choice too.

Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 35 minutes
Servings 55

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup (4 fl. oz./120 ml) water
  • 1/2 cup (4 fl. oz./120 ml) milk
  • 8 Tbs. (1 stick) (4 oz./113 g) unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
  • 1/2 tsp. fine sea salt
  • 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
  • 1 cup (4 1/2 oz./136 g) all-purpose flour
  • 4 eggs
  • 3 oz. (85 g) Gouda, preferably one with a little age (see headnote), shredded or grated
  • A few Tbs. cumin seeds for sprinkling
  • Maldon or other flaky sea salt for sprinkling

Directions

Preheat an oven to 350°F (180°C). If you want to bake all of the puffs at once, position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or baking mats. If you’re going to freeze half or more of the batch, center a rack in the oven and line just 1 baking sheet.

Put the water, milk, butter, fine sea salt and ground cumin in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. When the butter is melted, add the flour all at once, grab a sturdy flexible spatula and begin beating. Beat until you’ve got a dough that pulls away from the pan and leaves a film on the bottom (you might not get a film if your pan is nonstick), about 4 minutes.

Turn the dough out into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or into a large bowl that you can use with a hand mixer (or the spatula). Add the eggs one by one, beating for a minute after each goes in. You’ll have a smooth, shiny dough. Beat or stir in the cheese.

Scoop out balls of dough with a small cookie scoop (one with a capacity of 2 teaspoons) and arrange on the baking sheet(s), leaving a scant 2 inches (5 cm) between them, or use a teaspoon to portion out rounded spoonfuls of dough. (You can make the puffs ahead and freeze them on the baking sheets until solid, then pack airtight and freeze for up to 2 months.)

Sprinkle the tops of the puffs with cumin seeds and top each with a few flakes of sea salt. Bake the puffs for 30 minutes; if you’re baking 2 sheets, quickly rotate the sheets from top to bottom and front to back after 15 minutes.

Turn off the oven, open the door a crack—prop it slightly ajar with a wooden spoon—and let the puffs dry for about 10 minutes; they should feel firm and you should be able to peel them off the paper easily. Serve immediately—although these are delicious warm or at room temperature, they are really at their best when they’re hot. Makes about 55 puffs.

Storing: Please try to serve these as soon after they’re baked as possible. If you must hold them, you can give them a few minutes in a 350°F (180°C) oven to refresh them before serving.

A Word on Working Ahead: The easiest way to have fresh puffs when you need them is to scoop out the freshly made dough and freeze the puffs on the baking sheets until solid, then pack airtight and freeze for up to 2 months. When you’re ready to bake, arrange the frozen puffs on a lined baking sheet and let them sit on the counter while you preheat the oven. Sprinkle with the cumin and salt right before baking.

Playing Around
Cheese Sticks: Pipe the dough out into long sticks. You can use a pastry bag or a disposable pastry bag with a 1/2-inch (12-mm) opening cut in the tip for this; or cut an opening in a bottom corner of a ziplock bag.

Bake the sticks for 25 minutes, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and front to back after 12 minutes, then dry the sticks in the turned-off oven with the door propped slightly ajar for 15 minutes. While the puffs are good hot, the sticks are best at room temperature.

Classic Gougères: The classic cheese for gougères is Gruyère or Comté. You can add a couple of pinches of herbes de Provence or 2 to 3 tsp. chopped fresh rosemary to the dough and sprinkle some finely chopped walnuts on top of the puffs (or sticks) before baking them, if you like. Parmesan is also good with rosemary and walnuts. Cheddar is always a fine idea: Pair it with about 1/4 tsp. mustard powder or smoked paprika (a little of either can go a long way) and finely chopped almonds for the sprinkle—smoked almonds, if you’ve got them. Sesame seeds go with just about everything.

Adapted from Baking with Dorie, by Dorie Greenspan (Mariner Books, 2021)

  • bvseo_sdk, java_sdk, bvseo-4.0.0
  • CLOUD, getReviews, 11ms
  • REVIEWS, PRODUCT
  • bvseo-msg: The resource to the URL or file is currently unavailable.;