Gorging on Gougères

Cheese puffs from The French Laundry Cookbook are a hit ... the second time around.

The Sergeant grew up in the Bay Area, and when we started dating he took me out to a little place there that his mom recommended … Chez Panisse. (He was surprised I knew of it.) The same weekend, we had dinner at Bouchon, sister restaurant to The French Laundry. Years later, I had a birthday dinner at the French Laundry with his mom and sister. Guess I married into a good family!

The French Laundry is a ground-breaking restaurant in the Napa Valley helmed by Chef Thomas Keller. It opened in 1994 in Yountville and immediately began collecting awards. Since 2007 it has been held three Michelin stars. Its cookbook was published in 2000, and it is quite the tome.

Many of the recipes’ ingredients have their own recipes, with some dishes taking days to prepare. The book has a lot of seafood recipes that looked appealing, but I have to be careful there. I considered some of the simpler ones: gazpacho, or staff lasagna. In the end, I settled on a side dish: Gruyère Gougères, basically cheese puffs. They looked tasty, and doable.

Back in my earlier blogging days, I followed Carol Blymire’s French Laundry at Home, in which she cooked every recipe from the book. Before making this recipe, I decided to look at her notes on the gougères — only to discover I had commented on that very post not once, but twice. BECAUSE I’VE ALREADY MADE THIS RECIPE.

To be fair, that was 17 years ago, and I might have blocked out the memory: my gougères turned out SO badly. I used a cookie press instead of a piping bag, made them too small, and used the wrong kind of kosher salt.

Apparently Diamond Crystal kosher salt is lighter and less … salty than Morton’s, which is what I used the first time around. My gougères back then came out like lumpy, salty hockey pucks. Gross.

Fast-forward to today: I’d already committed to (re-)trying this recipe, and I’m glad I did.

Gruyère Cheese Gougères Recipe

1. Heat the oven to 450°F. Line two baking sheets with Silpats or parchment paper.

2. Grate 1¼ cups Gruyère (5 ounces) and measure out ¾ cup of that separately.

3. In a saucepan combine 1 cup water, 7 tablespoons (3.5 ounces) unsalted butter, ½ tablespoon kosher salt, and a pinch of sugar, and bring to boil. (The original recipe called for 1 tablespoon kosher salt, which would still be too salty for me, even using the correct salt.)

4. Dump in 1¼ cups (5 ounces) all-purpose flour all at once and lower the heat to medium. (On an electric stove whose burners don’t cool rapidly, it can be helpful to set another burner on medium and just slide the pot over.) Stir the mixture with a wooden spoon for 2 minutes. It will form a ball in the process. Keep stirring and turning it for the full 2 minutes.

5. Put the dough into a stand mixer with a paddle attachment and mix it on medium speed for 30 seconds to cool it down, then add 4 eggs and beat until the batter is smooth and silky. It should form a peak that flops over when you lift the paddle. (If the batter is too stiff, add 1 egg white and beat again. If still too stiff, add 1 egg yolk.)

6. Mix in ¾ cup grated Gruyère. Taste the batter and add salt and pepper to taste. (I added neither.)

7. Fill a pastry bag fitted with a ⅜-inch plain pastry tip with the gougère batter. You can also use a zip-top bag with the corner cut off, (or even just drop spoonfuls of batter). (I used a zip-top bag.) Pipe the batter into 1-tablespoon mounds on the baking sheets (about half the size of a ping-pong ball), leaving space between each for spreading. You should have just enough batter to fill the two baking sheets.

8. Sprinkle the top of each gougère with the remaining grated cheese and bake for 7-8 minutes, or until they puff and hold their shape.

9. Reduce the heat to 350° F and bake for another 20 to 25 minutes, until the gougères are a light golden brown, hollow and moist inside.

10. Serve hot from the oven. Try not to eat all four dozen yourself.

I confess, we did plow through a couple dozen easily; they were a perfect accompaniment for chicken noodle soup on the porch. (Yes, I opened a can.)

Here’s to faulty memory and second chances!