Hi everybody !

Long time no see... Well, a lot of things appends for me, and I didn't really have much time for my own. Now things are better, so let's start the year with a very simple and tasty recipe : french gougères.

They are small cheese flavored "choux" that are quite common in my region. They are tasty and not hard to make.

Follow these steps to get a bunch of them !!!

Step 1: Ingredients

Ok for about 60 pieces you need :

1/4 liter of half skimmed milk
100 gr of butter
150 gr of flour
4 eggs
50 gr of Comté, a french mature cow cheese. You may use any cheese you like, make sure to choose a not too fat one
salt/pepper, spices

You will need a cooking robot mixer, with a large bowl and a suitable tool to knead heavy dough.

Step 2: The Hot Ingredients

Ok, put the milk into a pan. Weight the butter and add it.

Add some salt, pepper and spices if you want. I love adding some nutmeg (not too much, the taste is very strong !!)

Weigh 150 gr of flour, but don't add it now.

Start heating the pan. Use a spoon to mix the contents as the butter slowly melts.

Watch out, this next step is the most critical one. Once the butter+milk preparation starts boiling, immediately remove the pan from the fire, and add the flour in just one time. Put back the pan on the fire and keep mixing to incorporate the flour. You should get a strong and smooth dough. Keep mixing on the fire until the dough is not sticking in the pan.(in order to dehydrate the dough)

When the dough looks ready (not sticking on the pan, and form a big dough "ball"), stop the fire.

Step 3: The Robot

Put the dough into the robot bowl. Start the robot at slow speed.

Add the eggs one by one. Don't do like me; it's better to crack the egg into a bowl then put it into the robot bowl. By doing like me, some egg shell may fall in the dough... :-(

Depending of the size of my eggs, I put only the yolk of the last one. You can put the full egg if you want of course.

Let the robot knead the dough for a couple of minutes at medium speed.

Step 4: Add the Cheese

Meanwhile, grind the cheese, then add it into the bowl. I sometimes stop the robot and remove the dough stoked on the rotary tool.

Let the robot works for a couple of minutes. Taste the dough and check if you need to add salt. (I always check after putting the cheese as it contains a lot of salt).

You should get a very sticky dough at the end.

Step 5: Form the Gougères

Prepare the baking plates : you will need two of them. You can use baking paper, or put butter on a plate.

I was running out of baking paper, so I made one of each. You can also use re-usable silicon baking sheets.

Get a coffee spoon and put small drops of dough on the paper. They should have a size of about one inch (2.5 cm) Put about two inches between them.

The dough is very sticky. You can use a finger to drop the dough, or use a second spoon.

Meanwhile, turn on the oven : 175 ° C, convection if you have.

Don't put them too close... They will inflate in the oven !

You may want to try different sizes. You can, but don't mix different sizes on a same plate; the baking times will be not the same !!

My tip : you can keep some cheese and spread some on the dough drops just before baking to get a crispy result...!

You can of course use a piping bag if you like...

Step 6: Baking

Ok baking time. Put the two plates in the oven, and start a 25 min timer.

DON'T OPEN THE DOOR during the baking time !!! It will stop inflate the gougères.

Check the gougères during the backing. They should inflate and get a nice brown color. After 25 minutes of baking they should not be too brown, just remove them before.

Step 7: Here We Are !

Here we are. I always put them in a big basket, but let them cool down before !!!

Theses are a great way to start a meal or for the apéritif. Some recipes involves filling them with meat and other preparations, but I really love them like this.

Thanks for reading !