Celebrating with friends or family whether at home or on the road is best enjoyed with tasty treats. Having finger foods at the ready can help turn your hungry guests into happy campers.

Gougère are fancy French cheese puffs floating out of the oven and into your mouth. These little flavour bombs are easy to make and perfect for a party. Gougère can be made well in advance, frozen individually, and heated (or filled) just as your guests arrive. A dozen or two gougère won’t take up much room in the RV freezer if you happen to be hosting while travelling.

The French prefer eating these with champagne. Alternatively, try dry apple cider.

Basic choux paste is a simple mixture of milk, fat, salt, flour, and eggs. Gougère adds shredded cheese to the basic dough. These can be enjoyed on their own right out of the oven, or you can stuff them with anything from egg salad or smoked salmon and cream cheese to curried chicken or spicy shrimp.

Choux paste seems intimidating but is simple to produce in the kitchen. Taking this culinary step is worth the risk; the reward is the ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ as it disappears.

Equipment

      • Gram Scale
      • Large stainless bowl
      • Wooden spoon
      • Saucepan
      • Piping bag with star tip or small cookie scoop
      • Flat baking sheets
      • Silicon paper or silicon baking mat
      • Cheese grater

Choux Paste Gougère (Cheese Puffs)
(Makes 18-24 Toonie-sized puffs)

      • 1 cup all-purpose flour
      • 1 cup milk
      • 1/2 cup, or 115 grams of butter (my preference is to use the scale)
      • 1/2 teaspoon salt
      • 4 large eggs at room temperature
      • 120 grams Gruyere Cheese, medium shred (about 1 cup) (Old white cheddar cheese will work too)
      • 60 grams of finely shredded parmesan cheese (about 1/2 a cup)

Butter, milk, and salt in a pan.

Start the choux paste by bringing butter, milk and salt to a simmer.

Stirring butter, milk, and salt.

Dump the flour, stir well, turn off the heat.

Butter, milk, salt, flour, and eggs combined.

Let the mixture cool for five minutes, then add one egg at a time, beating each addition to incorporate. Add the shredded cheese and mix well.

Piping Choux onto parchment paper.

Pipe or scoop toonie-sized choux paste onto a silicon paper-lined baking sheet.

Baked choux.

Top gougère with shredded parmesan. Bake as directed.

Method Choux Paste Cheese Puffs

      1. Add the milk, butter, and salt into a saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat.
      2. When the mixture comes to a simmer, dump the flour at once, remove from the heat and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until the mixture comes together and doesn’t stick to the wooden spoon.
      3. Add shredded gruyere and stir into the batter until it is all absorbed.
      4. Preheat oven to 400 F.
      5. Empty the hot choux paste into a large stainless bowl and let cool for five minutes.
      6. Add one egg at a time and beat vigorously with a wooden spoon to ensure the batter is smooth before adding the next egg.
      7. When all the eggs are added, beat the choux until smooth.
      8. Let the mixture cool to room temperature. (At this point, the paste can be piped or scooped for immediate baking or covered and refrigerated to be used within four days.)
      9. Pipe or scoop Toonie-sized pyramids of choux paste onto a parchment-covered baking sheet.
      10. Bake for 15 minutes at 400 F, then turn the oven down to 350 F and bake for another 10-15 minutes.
      11. Remove, cool, stuff, and serve. (You can also serve them warm, right out of the oven.)

Plated and stuffed gougère

Make your gathering complete with plain or stuffed gougère. (Here with shrimp and egg salad.)

Half of these gougère were served plain; for the others, some were stuffed with simple egg salad and the rest with shrimp salad. Be sure to use top-tier mayonnaise (use Kewpie Japanese mayo if you can find it, otherwise Hellmann’s proper mayo will do the job.) Make the egg salad as you would for sandwich filling, but add a 1/2 teaspoon of hot sauce. I made the shrimp filling with a can of shrimp and drained a couple of tablespoons of Kewpie mayo and two tablespoons of finely diced celery stalk.

Gougère is surprisingly simple, and guests enjoy these little bite-sized treats. Champagne or other bubbly is a perfect accompaniment.

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