Goug ères

Gougères. The perfect appetizer for the holidays. So impressive, so fancy, so French. And yet, they are so easy to make. Even better, they can be made ahead and frozen, then simply reheated in the oven when your guests arrive, as they are best served warm. Gougere are simply a savory cream puff. I first learned to make cream puffs in college, when I spent my summers in the dessert kitchen of a sleep away camp in New Hampshire. My boss, whose late husband had been a French-trained chef, brought his recipes into the camp kitchen and ran the place like it was the French Laundry. She taught me how NOT to put the knives in the sink (after she cut her hand on a knife I had left there, I still feel terrible about that), how to bleach and scrub a wooden counter, how to ice a cake (a first thin layer tamps down the crumbs…) , and most importantly, how to make cream puffs. I still remember boiling the water and butter in the big pot on the stove, then mixing in the flour till it held together and formed a skin on the bottom of the pan. Next we dumped the dough into the big standing mixer, let it cool and added the eggs one at a time. Finally, we piped them onto industrial sized cookie sheets and popped them into the oven. The most fun part was filling the cooled puffs with cream using this industrial sized metal bucket with a pump handle and nozzle – I have no idea what that thing was called, but it was so much fun! Anyway, gougère are not cream puffs per se, b...
Source: The Blog That Ate Manhattan - Category: Primary Care Authors: Tags: Appetizers Recipes best cream puff easy gougere Gougeres make ahead Make-ahead Source Type: blogs