gougeres

Want something different for dinner tonight? Try this Chicken and Mushroom Puff Pie. Creamy chicken and mushroom filling surrounded by a ring of crispy cheesy gougere pastry. Just sit back and wait for the compliments!

Chicken and Mushroom Puff Pie

4½z 0 (125 grams) Butter (cubed)

Water

Milk

(120 grams) Plain Flour (sifted)

Eggs (beaten)

Cheddar Cheese (grated)

Salt

lb (450 grams) Chicken Breasts

Onion

oz (200 grams) White Mushrooms (roughly chopped)

Frozen Peas

Dijon Mustard

Pouring Cream

Cornflour

Salt and Pepper (to taste)

Tablespoons Grated cheese (for topping)

Place the butter, milk, and water into a saucepan and bring to the boil.  Stir to ensure the butter has completely melted

Remove from the heat and add the sifted flour and salt all at once.

Return to a low heat and mix vigorously until the mixtures comes together into a ball and the flour is completely combined.

Allow to cool.

Add the beaten egg a little at a time, mixing well after each addition to incorporate all the egg.  See notes

Add the grated cheese and mix well to combine.

Spoon the mixture around the edge of a large pie dish.

For the Pastry

Preheat oven to 200°C / 400°F

Place the chicken breasts in a saucepan and cover with cold water.  Season with salt and pepper.

Bring to the boil then turn the heat off.   Put the lid on the pan and allow the chicken to stand in the water for about 10 minutes, while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

Saute the chopped onion in a little olive oil until translucent.  Do not allow it to brown.

Add the chopped mushrooms and allow to cook with the onions until the moisture from the onions has evapourated.

Season with salt and pepper and stir in the mustard.

Combine the cornflour with the cream and milk (make sure there are no lumps) and add to the mixture.  Stir over a low heat until the mixture has thickened.

Remove the chicken from the water, chop into bite-sized chunks and stir into the onion and mushroom mixture.

Stir in the peas

Allow to cool then spoon the mixture into the middle of the pastry in the pie dish.

Sprinkle with a little grated cheese

Place in a pre-heated oven  and bake for approximately 35 minutes until the pastry is well risen and the cheese is melted and golden.

For the Filling

Recipe video above. Fabulous light-as-air cheesy puffs that are crusty on the outside, hollow and soft on the inside. In France, they&#039;re served as nibbles with pre dinner drinks, as finger food at gatherings and for dunking into soups and stews! (How to pronounce Gougeres)

French Cheese Puffs (Gougeres)

(250 milliliters) water

/ 5.5 tbsp butter (, unsalted,

(150 grams) flour (, plain / all purpose)

tsp salt (, kosher/cooking salt)

nutmeg

black pepper

eggs

Gruyère cheese (, freshly shredded (Note 1))

/ 1/2 cup Gruyere cheese, extra (, freshly shredded (Note 1))

egg yolk (, for brushing)

Preheat the oven to 220°C / 425°F (200°C fan). Lightly grease 2 trays then line with parchment / baking paper.

Place water, butter and salt in a saucepan over medium high heat. Bring to a boil until butter is full melted.

Remove from stove, add flour, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Mix until incorporated.

Return to stove on LOW heat and mix for 1 minute (this dries the mixture out, see video for before/after).

Remove from stove, leave for 2 minutes.

Add 1 egg, mix vigorously until incorporated - batter splits at first, but it always comes together!

Add 3 more eggs, one at a time, mixing until incorporated before adding the next. Good arm workout! (Or use electric beater)

Stir in 2 cups cheese.

Drop 1 tablespoon mounds onto trays (small cookie scoop is ideal, otherwise use a measuring tablespoon and a teaspoon to scrape out. Can make larger - good for dunking!)

Brush with yolk, then top with a pinch of reserved Cheese for topping.

Bake 25 minutes.

Allow to cool for 15 minutes so they become crusty and inside dries out a bit.

Serve warm as pre dinner nibbles, finger food at gatherings, or dunk into soups and stews!

Gougères are perfect, golden pom-poms of cheese-crusted magic. This one-pan method sets you up for success every time. Even better - keep these little cheese puffs frozen, ready to bake, always.

Gougères

/ 160 ml beer / ale OR water

/ 80 ml milk

butter, thickly sliced

fine grain sea salt

/ 130 g all-purpose flour

eggs, room temperature

serrano chile, minced (optional)

Preheat oven to 425F / 220C, with a rack in top third. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Bring the beer, milk, butter, and salt just to a boil in a large (thick-bottomed) saucepan over medium-high heat. Dial back the heat a bit. Add the flours and use a wooden spoon to stir, stir, stir. Really go at it. Keep going for a couple minutes, until the dough comes together smoothly, and gives off a faint toasty scent. Remove from heat and let cool, stirring occasionally to let heat out, for about ten minutes. Long enough that the eggs won't cook when you attempt to work them in.

One at a time, add each of the four eggs, stirring vigorously after each addition. Really work each egg in. Stir in 1 cup of the cheese, and right away pipe (using a pastry bag) or scoop gougères onto the prepared baking sheet in heaping tablespoon-sized dollops, leaving at least 1 1/2 inches between each. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese.

Place in the oven, bake for FIVE minutes, then dial the heat back to 375, and bake another 20- 25 minutes, or until gougères are deeply golden all over, puffed, and well set. If you notice the gougeres in the back browning much more quickly than the ones in the front, quickly but carefully, spin the sheet 180 degrees about 2/3 through.

Alternately, if you aren't baking the gougères immediately: shape pans of gougère dough, sprinkle with cheese, and freeze for 1/2 hour. Transfer to a freezer bag at this point, until you're ready to bake. Bake straight from the freezer, same as above, with a couple extra minutes.

You’ll LOVE these gluten free gougères – they’re perfectly crisp, light and airy, and puff up beautifully in the oven. Their flavour is simply incredible, thanks to an abundance of grated cheese that you both fold into the choux pastry and also sprinkle on top of the gougères before baking. They’re the perfect canapé or appetiser, and guaranteed to impress – while also being super easy to make.

Gluten Free Gougères (French Cheese Puffs)

US large/UK medium eggs, room temperature

US large/UK medium egg white, room temperature

salt

g (3 ½ tbsp) whole milk

g (3 ½ tbsp) water

45 g (⅓ stick + 1 tbsp) unsalted butter

flour

tsp xanthan gum

Adjust the oven rack to the middle position, pre-heat the oven to 450ºF (230ºC) and line two large baking sheets with parchment/baking paper.

In a measuring jug or similar, whisk the eggs, egg white and salt until fully combined. Set aside until needed. Tip 1: You’ll notice that due to the presence of salt, the egg mixture will become runnier and less viscous. That&#39;s perfectly okay and to be expected.Tip 2: Mixing the salt in with the eggs improves the structure of the gougères, ensuring that they bake up airy and filled with large holes. It also makes them less prone to collapsing and deflating. So, don’t add the salt to your water-milk mixture or to the dry ingredients: mix it in with the eggs.

In a saucepan, heat the milk, water and butter over medium heat until the butter is fully melted and the mixture only just comes to a boil.

In a bowl, whisk together the gluten free flour blend and xanthan gum until well combined.

Pour the hot milk mixture into the dry ingredients in 3-4 batches, mixing well after each addition (with a wooden spoon or a rubber spatula, you can also use a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or a hand mixer fitted with the double beaters). After each addition, you want to get the batter as smooth as possible, without too many clumps. The final batter should have the appearance of a smooth paste.Tip: Because gluten free flour absorbs more moisture than wheat flour, and does so quicker, the standard choux making method of putting all the flour into the hot milk mixture at once doesn&#39;t work very well here. It would result in an irregular batter with lots of clumps. This alternative method, where you slowly pour the hot milk mixture into the dry ingredients, works far better. It gives a smooth batter with few or no clumps at all.

Transfer the batter into the saucepan that you used to heat the milk mixture (no need to clean it in between) and cook the batter over medium heat with constant stirring until it comes together in a ball, about 1-2 minutes. This is called a ‘panade’.

For the following steps, I recommend using either a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or a hand mixer fitted with the double beaters. You could do it by hand, but it will take longer and your choux pastry might not end up as smooth.

Transfer the panade back into the bowl and mix for 30-60 seconds, allowing it to cool slightly (so it doesn’t cook the eggs).

Add the whisked eggs to the panade in 4-5 batches, whisking well after each addition until the eggs have been fully incorporated. The final batter should be smooth and glossy, and of a thick but spoonable/pipeable consistency. Tip: If you want to have better, more precise control over the choux pastry consistency, you can finish the batter by hand after the final addition of the eggs (use a rubber spatula or a wooden spoon).Tip: In all of my tests, the amount of eggs listed in the recipe is sufficient to make the perfect gluten free choux pastry. If you’re using a gluten free flour blend with a higher water absorption capacity (that is, one that absorbs more liquid), you might need to add up to 1/2 egg extra. (Whisk it well before adding.)

Add 80g (about ¾ cup) of the grated cheese into the choux pastry and mix well until combined.

Making the choux pastry:

Transfer the choux pastry into a piping bag fitted with a large round nozzle.Tip: Alternatively, just cut off the end of the piping bag and use it without a nozzle.

Pipe dollops of the choux pastry onto one of the lined baking sheets. The dollops should be roughly 1 ½ inches (4cm) wide and 1 ½ inches (4cm) tall – about the size of a larger cherry tomato. Make sure to space them out by about 1 inch (2.5 cm), as they will expand and inflate during baking.

Dip your finger in a bit of water and use it to smooth down the tops of the piped gougères. You can also correct any misshapen gougères at this point.

Sprinkle each gougère with some of the leftover grated cheese.Tip: In addition to adding more flavour, this extra sprinkling of cheese also helps the gougères maintain a round shape in the oven – it essentially acts in a similar manner to craquelin.

Assembling the gougères:

Place the baking sheet with the gougères into the oven (that&#39;s been pre-heated to 450ºF/230ºC) and immediately reduce the oven temperature to 340ºF (170ºC).

Bake for about 30-35 minutes or until deep golden brown and crisp to the touch. Don&#39;t open the oven door while the gougères are baking.

Once the first baking sheet is done, heat the oven again to 450ºF (230ºC) and repeat the process (piping, sprinkling with cheese, baking) with the second baking sheet of gougères.

When the gougères come out of the oven, use a toothpick or a thin, sharp knife to make a hole on the side of each gougère – this will allow any steam to escape from inside the gougères and prevent them from becoming soft and deflating.

Serve the gougères either warm or at room temperature. You can serve them as is, or filled with a filling of your choice.

Baking the gougères:

The gougères are best on the day of baking, preferably eaten within a few hours of being baked.

You can store the gougères in an airtight container. They will soften, but you can re-crisp them by placing them into a 350ºF (180ºC) oven for 6-8 minutes.

Storage:

Thanks for the recipe and all of your most helpful tips.  I made them for a New Year’s Eve gathering and they turned out very well.  I used America’s Test Kitchen GF flour blend.  I piped the first batch a little too large, second batch were smaller and kept their shape better. I didn’t fill them.  Delightful.  Thanks again.

Very happy with this recipe and how they turned out.  Didn’t have xanthan gum (1 tsp) to add to my Better Batter Flour (which has it) so added 2 tsps. Psyllium husk.  Not as many holes as yours but they were delicious.

These turned out so airy and tasty.  Loved how clear your directions are.  The tip to make a little hole with the toothpick was really helpful as they didn't deflate at all!   Your recipes and book are going to make it so much easier for me to stick to the gluten free diet this time around.  Thank you for sharing this recipe.

Hi!  I thought they were good with your alternate flour!  I didn't use my mixer.  Too lazy.  So that's probably why they aren't as holey as yours.  But I changed nothing, including the cheeses.  Even my husband liked them!  Happy New Year, Kat!  I plan to make them for guests.   Thank you!

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