House & Garden SA’s Edwain Steenkamp recently joined Parmalat to try some some stunning recipes in the kitchen. The result? We instantly fell in love with a Gougères recipe. Gougères are small cheesey puffs that are perfect to serve at any dinner party. We especially love that they can be dressed up and altered to delight your guests. Here’s the recipe for you to try at home, with some insider tips from Edwain. Enjoy!
Ingredients
1 cup (250ml) water
80g / 5.5 tbsp Parmalat Garlic and Parsley butter. (Top tip: don’t swap this out for anything else, the seasoning in the Parmalat Garlic and Parsley butter helps flavour the mixture).
1 cup (150g) all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp salt
Pinch nutmeg (powder or freshly grated)
Pinch black pepper
4 eggs
200g / 2 cups Parmalat white cheddar, grated. (Top tip: we couldn’t help ourselves, we added a few different cheeses to help deepend the flavour. We love that Parmalat’s cheese blends well into batter, and melts evenly).
Method
1.Preheat the oven to 220°C.
2.Lightly grease 2 trays then line with parchment / baking paper. (Top tip: Edwain found that the paper is essential to prevent the Gougères from burning)
3.Place the water, butter and salt in a saucepan over medium high heat.
4.Bring to a boil until butter is fully melted.
5.Remove the pot from the stove, add flour, salt, pepper and nutmeg.
6.Mix until incorporated.
7.Return to the stove on LOW heat and mix for 1 minute - this dries the mixture out.
8.Remove from the stove, leave for 2 minutes.
9.Add 1 egg, mix vigorously until incorporated - batter splits at first, but it always comes together!
10.Add 3 more eggs, one at a time, mixing until incorporated before adding the next.
11.Stir in 2 cups of the cheese. (Top tip: at this stage, the mixture shouldn’t be too runny. If it is, try adding a bit more cheese or flour. You’ll ideally like the batter to be sticky and firm enough to hold its shape once you pipe it out).
12.Transfer the mixture to a piping bag without a nozzle. (Top tip: the piping here needn’t be very precise, so if you don’t have a piping bag, you can use a clear sandwich bag with the tip cut off).
13.Pipe the mixture in R5 size coins onto the baking tray, leaving enough space in between for them to puff up.
14.Brush with yolk, then top with a pinch of reserved cheese for topping.
15.Bake for 25 minutes.
16.Allow to cool for 15 minutes so they become crusty and the inside dries out a bit.
Top tip: you can add a pinch of paprika for more heat, and add chopped fresh herbs to add to the wow-factor.
