Recipe time

foraging male chaffinch

I've had a fancy for a while to make gougère, but I couldn't remember what on earth we used to have with it when we made it in the classic ring form. Having picked up some Gruyère, I was partially committed to making it - and in the end, I used some leftover roast lamb with it, I made a filling with some chopped onion sweated in olive oil, then added red bell peppers, courgettes, chopped tomatoes and rosemary, and added the diced lamb near the end of the cooking time.

Gougère is simply cheese-enhanced choux pastry, and can be made as a ring and served with a savoury filling or salad, or made into little puffs like profiteroles, or larger puffs like cream buns.

Since my recipe goes back to when I did my Cordon Bleu course, it's not even in metric, let alone with American alternatives! 

For the two of us I used:

Gougère:

1/4 pt (5 fluid ounces) water

2 ounces butter

2 1/2 ounces strong flour

2 eggs

for the choux pastry, and I used about 3 ounces of Gruyère cheese - most of it coarsely grated, and some diced finely to sprinkle over the top.

Other good cheeses to use are Comté or Emmental.

Make your choux pastry (I always beat the last egg in a cup, and add it gradually so as not to make the pastry too wet), and stir in the grated cheese. Shape into your preferred option, the cooking time will obviously vary depending on what shape you are making.

I baked mine in a medium hot oven (180C) for about forty minutes.