Preheat oven to 400°F. Place rack in the upper third position.
Prepare egg wash: Place 1 egg and 1 teaspoon whole milk into a small bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside with a pastry brush handy..
Prepare cheese puffs: Pour milk into a medium saucepan. Stir in nutmeg, dry mustard, salt and peppers. Once salt dissolves, add butter. As soon as the milk has scalded and the butter melted, add flour all at once and stir vigorously until the mixture pulls away from the sides to form a ball of dough.
Remove from heat, transfer dough into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, and leave to cool for 5 minutes.
With the mixer running on moderate speed, add the eggs, one at a time, combining thoroughly after each addition. Once all the eggs are combined, add the Gruyère and ½ cup of Parmesan and blend together.
To make larger puffs: Using an ice cream scoop, drop scoop-sized mounds onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, leaving 1-inch of space between each, 12 in total. Brush each with the egg wash, followed by a sprinkle of Parmesan. Transfer to oven and bake for 25 minutes or until cheese puffs are plump and golden in colour.
To make smaller puffs: Transfer dough to pastry bag fitted with a ½-inch plain tip. Pipe small mounds of dough, about the size of a walnut, onto parchment-lined baking tray, 12 per tray, 24 in total. Dip your finger in cold water and gently push down any dough tips to create an even top to the puff. Brush each with egg wash followed by a sprinkle of Parmesan. Transfer to oven and bake for 22 minutes or until cheese puffs are plump and golden in colour.
Remove from oven and serve immediately.
To freeze: Cool completely and store in an airtight container in the freezer. To serve from frozen; heat in a low oven until warmed through and the outsides are crispy.
French Cheese Puffs
Ingredients
1 cup whole milk
6 tablespoons butter
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon dry mustard powder
¼ teaspoon black pepper
pinch cayenne pepper
⅛ freshly grated nutmeg
4 eggs, room temperature
1 cup grated Gruyère cheese
½ cup grated Parmesan
For the topping:
1 egg, room temperature
1 teaspoon whole milk
¼ cup grated Parmesan
Directions
Preheat oven to 400°F. Place rack in the upper third position.
Prepare egg wash: Place 1 egg and 1 teaspoon whole milk into a small bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside with a pastry brush handy..
Prepare cheese puffs: Pour milk into a medium saucepan. Stir in nutmeg, dry mustard, salt and peppers. Once salt dissolves, add butter. As soon as the milk has scalded and the butter melted, add flour all at once and stir vigorously until the mixture pulls away from the sides to form a ball of dough.
Remove from heat, transfer dough into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, and leave to cool for 5 minutes.
With the mixer running on moderate speed, add the eggs, one at a time, combining thoroughly after each addition. Once all the eggs are combined, add the Gruyère and ½ cup of Parmesan and blend together.
To make larger puffs: Using an ice cream scoop, drop scoop-sized mounds onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, leaving 1-inch of space between each, 12 in total. Brush each with the egg wash, followed by a sprinkle of Parmesan. Transfer to oven and bake for 25 minutes or until cheese puffs are plump and golden in colour.
To make smaller puffs: Transfer dough to pastry bag fitted with a ½-inch plain tip. Pipe small mounds of dough, about the size of a walnut, onto parchment-lined baking tray, 12 per tray, 24 in total. Dip your finger in cold water and gently push down any dough tips to create an even top to the puff. Brush each with egg wash followed by a sprinkle of Parmesan. Transfer to oven and bake for 22 minutes or until cheese puffs are plump and golden in colour.
Remove from oven and serve immediately.
To freeze: Cool completely and store in an airtight container in the freezer. To serve from frozen; heat in a low oven until warmed through and the outsides are crispy.
French Cheese Puffs
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Crisp, puffed pâte à choux pastry flavoured with Gruyère and Parmesan…
Need a surefire party snack? Make these FRENCH CHEESE PUFFS.
The correct French name for these tasty treats is GOUGÈRE, and they’re famously in demand for good reason. Not only are they relatively easy to make, but most importantly, they’re incredibly delicious! We’re thinking these FRENCH CHEESE PUFFS need to make an appearance at everyone’s next party or get-together.
Here’s how to make them:
Flour, milk, eggs, butter, cheese and spices – this is easy!
INGREDIENTS
These savoury baked cheese puffs begin with the four essential ingredients needed to make pâte à choux pastry; flour, eggs, milk and butter. Unlike the sweetened pastry used to create a cream puff confection like profiteroles, churros and eclairs, our dough also contains a few spices and two types of cheese. All in all, there’s nothing special needed to make them. We like that.
The mustard and nutmeg both bring out the flavour of the two cheeses.
SPICES
Adding the right mix of spices into the dough for these tender pastry puffs is important. While testing, we discovered that both mustard powder and nutmeg help bring out the flavour of the cheeses while the cayenne and black peppers add a soft spiciness. I like to add the salt and spices all at once in with the milk, stirring to combine. You can do a little preview taste test at that point and make some slight adjustments if you’d like more salt or spices to taste.
Gruyère and Parmesan pair perfectly in this homemade pastry recipe.
CHEESE
Gougères are most often made with Gruyère, Comté or Emmentaler cheese. Frequent visitors to WATC know we’re big fans of Gruyère and have used it with great success in our ONION SOUP, CROQUE MONSIEUR and HOT BROWN TURKEY SANDWICH recipes; its nutty flavouring is a fave. Using it for this cheese puff recipe seemed only right, but then we went a step further and paired it with aged Parmesan cheese. The combination gives the recipe loads of flavour.
Cheese + eggs + butter = a delicious combination.
MAKING THE DOUGH
First created in France, this pâte à choux dough happens in two parts. First, we stir flour into a boil of lightly spiced melted butter and hot milk on the stovetop. When making it for the first time, don’t be shy! Watch this VIDEO as a primer, then stir everything together with conviction.
Stir the seasoning into the milk to dissolve the salt.
You can use a wooden spoon or a silicone spatula; either will help pull the dough away from the bottom of the pan to form a ball.
Stir the mixture vigorously after adding the flour. It’ll then come together in just a few moments.
The second step in the dough-making process happens with a stand mixer, where we add eggs to the slightly cooled dough, followed by the two types of cheese.
The dough will be a bit sticky, but work with it!
Prepared to be amazed at how easy it is to make!
The brush of egg wash and a sprinkle of Parm is the perfect finishing touch to these cheese puffs.
MEDIUM SIZE / PARTY SIZE
There’s good news, and then there’s more good news. The good news; this recipe can yield 12 medium-sized cheese puffs that you can serve fresh out of the oven with a favourite soup or stew. They’re especially perfect with our CREAMY CORN CHOWDER, this HEARTY BEEF STEW or our vegetarian PUMPKIN SOUP. Making them perfectly round as we did here is made easy – just use an ice cream scoop to measure portions. Now you know!
Make the medium size puffs to go with soups and stews. The smaller-size puffs are perfect for parties.
And… more good news. Make the recipe as detailed down below, but transfer the dough into a piping bag fitted with a ½-inch plain tip. Pipe 24 smaller cheese puffs onto two baking trays lined with parchment paper. These are the perfect snack-sized puffs to place out or pass around at parties. If you’re the type who has friends hanging out in the kitchen while you prepare munchies, these are the best bake-and-serve item ever.
Prepare the egg wash and grate your cheese before beginning the recipe.
EGG WASH
Whether you’re making medium or smaller-sized puffs, don’t forget to enhance the look and flavour of each with a brush of egg wash and a sprinkle of additional Parmesan cheese. These finishing touches give the outside of the cheese puffs a lovely, almost crunchy crust and cheesy finish. We know you’ll also love the rich golden brown colour of them once baked. Beautiful!
The insides of gougères puff up; they’re light and airy.
ENJOY
Now, in case you’re already thinking about making them, I should mention that they also freeze really well. Simply place them into an airtight container, tuck them into the freezer, and weeks later you can just warm ‘em up in a low oven for 5 to 10 minutes; instant party snack!
Enjoy these cheese puffs straight from the oven, still warm.
Cook Mode Use cook mode to keep your screen on while cooking.
Ingredients
1 cup whole milk
6 tablespoons butter
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon dry mustard powder
¼ teaspoon black pepper
pinch cayenne pepper
⅛ freshly grated nutmeg
4 eggs, room temperature
1 cup grated Gruyère cheese
½ cup grated Parmesan
For the topping:
1 egg, room temperature
1 teaspoon whole milk
¼ cup grated Parmesan
Directions
Preheat oven to 400°F. Place rack in the upper third position.
Prepare egg wash: Place 1 egg and 1 teaspoon whole milk into a small bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside with a pastry brush handy..
Prepare cheese puffs: Pour milk into a medium saucepan. Stir in nutmeg, dry mustard, salt and peppers. Once salt dissolves, add butter. As soon as the milk has scalded and the butter melted, add flour all at once and stir vigorously until the mixture pulls away from the sides to form a ball of dough.
Remove from heat, transfer dough into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, and leave to cool for 5 minutes.
With the mixer running on moderate speed, add the eggs, one at a time, combining thoroughly after each addition. Once all the eggs are combined, add the Gruyère and ½ cup of Parmesan and blend together.
To make larger puffs: Using an ice cream scoop, drop scoop-sized mounds onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, leaving 1-inch of space between each, 12 in total. Brush each with the egg wash, followed by a sprinkle of Parmesan. Transfer to oven and bake for 25 minutes or until cheese puffs are plump and golden in colour.
To make smaller puffs: Transfer dough to pastry bag fitted with a ½-inch plain tip. Pipe small mounds of dough, about the size of a walnut, onto parchment-lined baking tray, 12 per tray, 24 in total. Dip your finger in cold water and gently push down any dough tips to create an even top to the puff. Brush each with egg wash followed by a sprinkle of Parmesan. Transfer to oven and bake for 22 minutes or until cheese puffs are plump and golden in colour.
Remove from oven and serve immediately.
To freeze: Cool completely and store in an airtight container in the freezer. To serve from frozen; heat in a low oven until warmed through and the outsides are crispy.
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