Italian Aperitivo: Gougeres (French cheese puffs)
Running Cooking Classes in Tuscany often means toasting with an aperitif in your hands, together with your students.
Sometimes we toast throughout Tuscany due to my work as a traveling chef, other times we toast directly in the kitchen of the “Cuoche in Vacanza” Cooking School and B&B near Lucca.
Well, for sure we had a great Italian Aperitivo last week. It was the starter for a buffet of about 30 people. The closing of a master’s degree at the University of Genoa was celebrated.
So, the Italian Aperitivo: Gougeres is very fashionable in recent times. I have learned these french cheese puffs directly from my stepmother who is from Dijon in Burgundy where they originate. For the buffet that I prepared, I decided to accompany them with an excellent smoked salmon.
Well, in Italy, we put the Gougeres over a charcuterie board with delicious cold cuts and also precisely with the smoked salmon.
Follow the steps one by one and you will have one of the most delicious things in the world.
Buon Appetito!
GOUGERES (french cheese puffs)
INGREDIENTS
5 oz (150 gr) flour
5 oz (150 gr) groviera or emmenthal or maasdam cheese
2 oz (60 gr) butter
1 cup (250 ml) water
1 pinch nutmeg
to taste salt, pepper
4 whole eggs
1 yolk for brushing
METHOD
Boil water + butter
Add the flour in one stroke and whisk well
Pour 1 egg till incorporated … proceed with one egg at a time till they’re finished.
Add 3⁄4 of the groviera and the nutmeg and mix again
Switch on the oven 392°F (200°C)
Grease a baking tray with butter (you can also use baking paper)
Spoon the pasta on the tray (help yourself with a teaspoon to expel the dough from the spoon in one move)
Spread the remaining cheese on the top
Brush (if you like) the yolk on the top before baking
Bake at 392 °F (200 °C) for 30 minutes (fan)
Important Recommendations
Before switching off the oven, check the gougeres are well baked on the bottom and touch the top that should be hard (not elastic).
Turn off the oven and let them dry and cool inside the oven, with the oven door slightly open
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