These little things look very much like choux pastry right? Indeed they are! Just that they are savoury cousins of the sweet ones, known as gougères.
Gougère is a savoury pastry made using pâte à choux mixed with cheese Originated from Burgundy, France, this little pastries are traditionally made with Gruyère, Comté, or Emmentaler.
When planning my to-bake menu for August, I decided to attempt a savoury choux to submit it to the choux party that I’m hosting. I used my favourite choux recipe and made some additions to it – parmesan, bacon and parsley. The resulting gougères had a very nice, sharp and salty cheese and bacon taste – and paired with their slight crispy exterior and soft interior, they made wonderful appetizers, snacks and tea time treats (if you aren’t a sweet-tooth)!
However, the taste of parsley wasn’t very noticeable – perhaps using more parsley or the dried ones or a stronger herb would be better! The gougères also lost the battle against humidity after a few hours sitting at room temperature so the exterior became soft but they were still pretty good (in my opinion… haha) But of course they could use a quick trip to the oven to be re-crisped!
Something missing?
My mom was surprised to find that the inside is hollow – she hasn’t heard of gougères so she thought it would be something like a doughnut heh. On the other hand, X was actually hoping that I filled the gougères but I was feeling lazy haha. I originally intended to make a tuna-egg-mayo mix for the filling but the plan went down the drain due to my laziness. Haha. Well there’s always next time!
Step-by-step Photos | |
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| 1) Bacon, parmesan and parsley - very fine! | 2) Mix into the choux pastry. |
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| 3) Scoop mounds onto a baking sheet. | 4) Brush with egg wash and bake away! |
Yummy little bites!
I’m submitting this to Aspiring Bakers #34: Choux Pastry hosted by me! There’s only about 1 1/2 weeks left to the end of the event, don’t forget our dateline is 31 August 2359 hours (Singapore Time aka 1559 hours in GMT – see time zone converter here)!
I’m also going to submit this to Little Thumbs Up organised by Doreen from my little favourite DIY and Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids. This month’s theme – Egg – is hosted by Yen from Eat your heart out. The recipes are all linked at this post!
- 2 strips streaky bacon
- 20 grams Parmesan / Cheddar / Gruyere, finely grated
- 2 tablespoons fresh and finely minced parsley
- 100 grams water
- 40 grams butter, softened and chopped
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 70 grams all-purpose flour, sifted onto a large parchment paper
- 100 grams eggs (2 - 3 eggs), at room temperature, whisked together
- 1 egg, beaten (separate, for egg wash)
- Cook the streaky bacon over medium heat until crispy. Drain the bacon on a paper towel and when they have cooled, crumble the bacon into small pieces. Mix the bacon, cheese and parsley together. Set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Line baking sheets with baking parchment.
- Combine water, butter, sugar and salt in a pot. Heat the mixture over high heat, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon, and bring it to a rolling boil. Add in all the flour at once, turn off the heat and stir quickly with the wooden spoon to mix in all the flour.
- Once the flour has been mixed in, turn on the heat to medium-low and continue mixing with the wooden spoon until the mixture forms a soft dough and that you can see a layer of dough at the bottom of the pot, about 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from heat and transfer the dough into a mixing bowl and let cool slightly so that the eggs don't cook when they are added.
- Add in the eggs, a little at a time, beating well (either with an electric mixer or a wooden spoon) until the egg has been fully incorporated before adding the next bit of eggs. The choux pastry is ready when you use a spatula to scoop the choux up and after majority of the choux falls back into the bowl, the remaining choux "hangs" on the spatula and forms a "V" shape. Stop adding anymore eggs once this consistency has been reached. Use a rubber spatula and fold in the bacon, cheese and parsley.
- Pipe or scoop small mounds of choux pastry (about 1 to 1.5-inch in diameter or 1 teaspoon per mound) onto the baking sheet, leaving 2 inches between each mound of choux. Dip a pastry brush into the beaten egg (egg wash), and brush it over the choux, smoothing down any tips poking out.
- Bake the gougères for 10 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius. Lower the heat down to 175 degrees Celsius and continue baking for 20 minutes. Remove the gougères from the oven. Hold a gougère with a clean and dry tea towel and use a sharp knife to make a slit on the side. Return the gougères back to the oven and continue to bake for another 5 to 10 minutes, until the top is golden-brown and the crust is crisp.
- Turn off the oven, leave the oven door ajar and let the puffs cool in the warm oven for 30 minutes. Serve warm or, if preferred, let them cool completely on a wire rack before filling it.
Super Naggy:
- I made only 1/2 the recipe below so it was easier to beat the choux pastry by hand using a wooden spoon. If you are feeling lazy or making a big batch of gougères, use the mixer so that it makes your life a lot easier! I found that the parsley taste wasn’t strong enough, so I will increase the amount used next time or just use dried herbs. If you are interested in filling them, you can make the gougères bigger and fill them with anything you like – I’d love to mix some flaked tuna and hard-boiled eggs together with mayonnaise or a combination of smoked salmon, cream cheese and dill – yum!
- Make sure you crumble the cheese, bacon and parsley finely – as the gougères are made relatively small, you won’t want to get a large chunk of bacon or cheese in it.
- Instead of using water, you can substitute with milk. I didn’t want the gougères to be overly-browned so I used water.
- Egg wash can be omitted if you are feeling lazy, but it gives them a nice shine and helps the gougères brown (since no milk was used in mine)
Hey! If you switch the plain flour for some strong bread flour then you will get a crispier choice pastry 🙂 by the way, the flavour combination was DELICIOUS! Thank you 🙂
Hi Naomi, thank you for the tip! I’ll give it a try next time!
Loving the idea of these. I’ve never heard of them. Choux pastry I really like, and must try and make it one of these days. Although, as I don’t have a sweet tooth these would be better to make. Besides, the pastry cream can take a while.
– Impressed with the new blog! How are you finding Blogger over WP? One of the reasons I’m asking is: too many probs with WP right now. And as I use Google Chrome (of course, Blogger works) I just might switch!
Hi Johnny! Yes gougeres probably suit you better and I can’t wait to see what twist you are going to come up with!
Thank you very much for your compliment! I honestly love WP a bit more because of the SEO and the comment function (keeps SPAM out much more effectively!) You can try using the free Blogger blog first before deciding whether to switch over!
perfect! i reckon that these are also very good to have along with a bowl of mushroom soup !
Hi Lena, mushroom soup sound like a great option!
Hi, is this item can be bake in advance (1 day)? will it turn soggy?
Hi Soh, yes they may be made in advance in various ways.
1) After piping the dough, you can freeze the dough and bake it whenever you want it, so you get fresh and crisp gougères anytime!
2) After the baked gougères have cooled down, store them in an air-tight container. If you find that they have turned a little soggy, do re-heat them for about 5-10 minutes in a 175 degrees Celsius oven to re-crisp them.
Hi, thank you for your advice, update you once I baked it.
Have a nice day!
Hi Soh! You are welcome! Have a great baking week ahead, let me know how it goes! 🙂
That is a beautiful looking choux pastry. I’d like to try them with sundried tomatoes instead of the bacon.
Hi Eliabeth! Sundried tomatoes sound like a great idea!
These look so light and tasty! Great pictures!!
Hi Crystal, thank you! They are very yummy little bites!
I love this combo for gougeres! Yum!
Thank you! 🙂
Beautiful shots Jasline. Your photos always look so sharp and bright. Makes me wanna grab one off the screen and take a bite! Thanks for linking this to LTU 🙂
Thank you for the compliments! Hope you didn’t bite a hole in your computer! haha!
wow, these are gorgeous! I have seen some savoury choux pastry but did not have time to get round to them yet! Tuna filling sounds good, roll some over when you make them next time!
Hi Joyce, thank you! Will definitely roll some your way when I make them again!
oh gosh beautiful! and surely yummy too!
Thank you Alice!
hi Jasline,
I am going to join your choux party 😀
My family and i love choux puff a lot!!
I was looking for a recipe for savoury ones today and i saw them in your blog..how lovely!
Going to try this soon 🙂
Thanks for sharing this lovely gougeres to LTU 🙂
mui
Hi Mui, can’t wait to see your take on the choux!
Looks very tasty. Love the choice of ingredients you used. I bet these would be awesome with roast beef.
Thank you! Roast beef sounds like a great idea!
this looks awesome Jasline!
Hi Victoria, thank you so much!
How cute! I love the versatility of these savory pastries, but to me, those hollow centers are begging for a filling. They’re prime candidates for stuffing!
Hi Hannah! Yes these hollow pastries are perfect to stuff with anything you like. Thank you for dropping by my blog! 🙂
Hi Jasline,
Sorry that I laughed when you said that your mum is surprised to find air inside your gougeres! I think your creamy tuna-egg-mayo filling idea sounds good to plump up these crispy gougeres. I know what my son want… More cheese!
Zoe
Hi Zoe, haha my mom can be very funny sometimes. Oooh your son really loves cheese!
I think your gougers look delicious and sound delicious. If the parsley doesn’t add enough flavor, perhaps I might add little fresh thyme from my garden.
Hi Karen! Thank you very much for the compliment. How lucky! I wish I can plant some thyme too, but I don’t have a garden 🙁 Would love to see how thyme adds to the flavour!
Definitely a good way to ring in the new season!
Thank you for the compliment! 🙂
Gougeres are one of my favorite appetizers to make for company. Your additions make these super scrumptious!
Hi Liz! Yes I think I will be making gougeres in the future when I have company too! 🙂