Another go at gougères

I'm not sure if I had a dream about them the night before or what, but all day at work on Wednesday I was thinking about gougères. I had to try to make them again. Last month when I made them I overcooked them (I think) and they just didn't hit the spot. These were much better.

Here's the recipe I made up on Wednesday for gougères with Gruyère and scallions. You can substitute chives for scallions - which I think is more traditional - but I thought that the scallions provided a nice, light oniony flavor which goes very well with the cheeses. The directions follow the method used by Chef Delphin in my petit fours class a few weeks ago. It is so much easier and faster to use a stand mixer rather than making the dough on the stovetop.

Ingredients
1 c. water
1/2 c. butter
1 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. freshly ground black pepper (more or less to taste)
pinch of freshly ground nutmeg
1 tsp. paprika (more or less to taste)
1 tsp. dijon mustard
1 c. flour
4 eggs
3 scallions, white and light green parts, roughly minced (about 2 heaping Tbls., more or less to taste)
4-5 Tbls. Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, finely diced
1/4 c. Gruyère cheese, grated

mise en place

Directions
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Place the flour in the bowl of a stand mixer and attach the paddle.

In a saucepan, combine water, butter, salt, pepper, nutmeg and bring to a rolling boil; make sure butter is completely melted. Stir in the paprika and dijon mustard and remove from heat.

Pour the water mixture into the mixing bowl, all at once, and mix on medium for approximately 1 minute until the dough reaches 155 degrees.

"mashed potato" stage

With the mixer on medium, add 1 egg at a time. The dough will look like it's falling apart, but just be patient, it will be gorgeous in the end.

mixing in the eggs, one at a time

Your dough should look smooth and shiny when it's done. If it is still sticky looking, add one more egg.

beautiful!

Remove the bowl from the mixer and scrape down the sides, if necessary. Fold in the chives and the diced Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.

in goes the scallions and cheese

Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Sprinkle a little of the grated Gruyère cheese onto each puff.

into the oven

Bake at 375 for 35 minutes. Lower temperature to 325 and bake for an additional 15 minutes until they are golden and "dry" looking (a few extra minutes may be needed, depending on how large your puffs are). Try not to open the oven during baking.

hot out of the oven

They are best warm, just out of the oven. I had mine with a little Chianti...delicious!

dinner...yum!

Bye for now...

In the classroom: techniques of baking, Jan. 2011

We've had so much snow this month - more than is normal for the entire season in most years! And, sadly another foot is predicted for this week. I'm definitely on the big countdown to spring. Here springy springy...here spring...

this was after the first nor'easter... in one month we've had FOUR more storms

So, to keep me busy on these cold winter days, I signed up for some more classes at the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts, a 4-part class on the techniques of baking and a 2-part class on classic doughs and fillings (with Master Pastry Chef Delphin Gomes - he rocks!). See here for the entry on the classic doughs and fillings class.

In techniques of baking we spent a class on each of the following: pâte à choux, pies/tarts, breads and cakes (although, sadly I was really sick and had to miss the cake class). The pâte à choux was much easier than I had anticipated from having read the directions in a Julia Child cookbook. We made creme puffs with a light pastry creme filling and gougères, a savory puff with gruyère cheese and chives. The gougères were so delicious and easy enough to make as appetizers for a dinner party.

creme puffs with a small hole on the bottom to cool them thoroughly and then to pipe in the filling

pastry creme

whipped cream to add to pastry creme

finished pastry creme, ready to pipe into the puffs

finished puffs, all in a row

boxed up to take home

I made the gougères again at home but they were not quite as delicious as in class. I think the teacher used a different second cheese and I also overcooked them and they collapsed a bit. I'll keep trying though, because they tasted great.

ingredients ready

my mise en place (translates to everything - measured ingredients - in place)

piped onto sheet pan

topped with more cheese and ready to bake

slightly deflated, but still delicious

I forgot to bring my camera to the second class, but I made a fantastic lemon curd tart. The lemon curd was so delicious that I've made it again in the two week since class. Instead of using the lemon curd for a tart, I'll stir a couple of tablespoons into plain, Greek-style yogurt. It's incredibly good.

The third class was breads. I've made regular loaf bread at home, mixed in a breadmaker and then formed and baked in a loaf pan, but I hadn't experimented much so I was really looking forward to this class. I made a whole wheat rosemary garlic bread and some goat cheese scallion biscuits. The whole wheat loaves were a little heavy - I would use less whole wheat and more white flour next time - but the flavor and texture were really nice. The biscuits were fabulous. They were easy to make and baked up light and flaky, but moist (from the goat cheese).

mise en place for whole wheat rosemary garlic bread

my dough, after the first rise

shaped and midway through the second rise

heart-shaped goat cheese scallion biscuits

round biscuits

A few pictures from my classmates' creations.

pizzettas - these crisp mini-pizzas were fantastic and I definitely plan to make them myself

focaccia topped with fresh herbs, garlic and cheese

jalapeno cheddar corn bread - yum

Bye for now...