Ingredients
Check off ingredients as you go
For 20 beautiful gougères
- 120g shredded or crumbled cheese of your choice (goat cheese, mozzarella, emmental, comté, emek…) + a bit more for sprinkling on each gougère
- 150g all-purpose flour, sifted (1¼ cups)
- 80g butter (⅓ cup)
- 250ml water (1 cup)
- 4 eggs
- 1 tsp herbs de Provence
- Salt, pepper
For those discovering them, gougères are savory cheese puffs with a melting cheese center. They’re perfect for appetizers, a light meal, or to take on a picnic!
Preparing the choux pastry
- In a saucepan, pour the water and add the butter cut into pieces so it melts. When it comes to a boil, add the flour all at once and remove from heat. The panade (that’s the name of the mixture) will become quite dense.
- Return quickly to medium heat, continuing to stir until the panade pulls away cleanly from the sides of the pan.
- Remove from heat, incorporate the cheese while continuing to mix, then add the eggs one at a time. You should get a thick, coating mixture. Add the herbs de Provence, salt, and pepper.
Baking the gougères
- Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F). On a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, using a spoon or piping bag, place the equivalent of a heaping tablespoon of dough, spacing them well apart as the gougères will puff up. As a guide, I make 4 rows of 5 gougères. Optionally sprinkle with shredded cheese. Bake for 20 minutes until they’re beautifully golden and puffed.
Tips and variations
For the gougère dough, instead of water, some people use milk or half water, half milk. I find they’re very soft with just water, but you can try it to form your own opinion.
Instead of shredded cheese on top of the gougères, you can brush them with egg wash.
If you make them a bit ahead, gougères reheat very well for a few minutes in the oven.