Easy, Light & Airy Cheese Puffs (Gougeres)

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I wanted to eat something different and easy to prepare.  I am a bit tired of all the normal cakes and stuff. Then I accidentally came across this post by Ramamalaysia on Cheese Puffs or Gougeres.  Gougeres are light, airy and puffy cheese puffs with a strong cheese aroma.

The method used is similar for making cream puffs, except that Cream puff is sweet, whilst Cheese puff is salty.  I am curious to try my hand on this.  It turns out very to prepare and very light and airy savory puffs.  In my first batch of puffs, I followed the original recipe to a tee, the Cheese Puffs taste very good when it is hot and fresh, but once it cooled down, the taste is quite bland (unless you add loads of Parmesan cheese to the top of the puffs prior to baking).  So I decided to add another twist of taste, add in garlic powder to spice up the puffs in my second batch of puffs.  The resulting Cheese puffs taste super delicious when hot, and even when it cooled down, you can taste a very distinctive savory taste in the Puffs (and you can’t tell it is garlic powder at all).

My son took the Cheese puffs to eat, when without me knowing, half the plate of puffs disappeared.   One of my friends who tried it also loved it, asked me for the recipe and another puff for tea (later I found out that it was gone immediately after she eat the first one …. <wink>).

Try it yourself!  Enjoy!

   Put a saucepan over medium heat, melt water, butter, salt and pepper.  Bring to a boil.  Then add in flour.

  Stir until a dough is formed.  Take the dough out to cool down slightly.  Then add in the eggs one by one, stir to combine after each egg is added.  Then add in parsley and Mozzarella cheese, mixed to combine..

  Put a large spoonful of batter on the greased baking pan.  Leave some space in between batter to cater for expansion.  The puffs will expand and puff up in size.  Spread melted butter and garlic on top of the baked puffs, then sprinkled with Parmesan cheese on top of puff.  Put back into oven for 5-10 mins (with the heat off).

 

Cheese Puff (Gougeres) Recipes

Preparation time: 30 mins.  Make 30 puffs.

Ingredients

3/4 cup Water

70 grams Butter

1/2 tsp Salt

1/8 tsp Black Pepper

1 cup All Purpose Flour

5 medium size eggs (or 4 large eggs)

3/4 cup grated Mozzarella Cheese

1/2 tsp chopped parsley

1/4 cup grated Parmesan Cheese

15 grams melted Butter

1/4 tsp Garlic powder

 

Method

  1. Pre-heat oven to 220 oC.
  2. Grease the baking tray with butter.
  3. In a saucepan over medium heat, add water, butter, salt and black pepper,  Use a wooden spatula to stir until all melted.   Bring to a boil.
  4. With the heat still on, add flour to the mixture in the saucepan.  Use the wooden spatula to stir the mixture and mixed into a dough.  Continue to stir for another 2 mins to dry out the dough a little.
  5. Off the heat.  Remove the dough from the saucepan into a clean bowl.  Let it cool down slowly.
  6. Now, slowly add one egg at a time to the dough, use the wooden spatula to stir (in one direction) until well combined.
  7. Add chopped parsley and mozzarella cheese to the dough and mixed well.
  8. Scoop a spoonful of dough and drop onto the baking tray.  The dough will be a bit watery and cannot hold the shape.  Just try to make the shape round.
  9. Put the baking tray into the oven and baked at 220 oC for 10 mins.  Then reduce the heat to 190 oC and baked for another 20 mins or until the cheese puffs turn golden brown.
  10. In the meantime, mixed melted butter with garlic powder.
  11. Once the cheese puffs are baked, off the oven heat, take out the puffs and close the oven door.  Spread the garlic-butter spread on top of the puff, then sprinkled Parmesan cheese on it.  Put the puffs back into the oven (without heat) for another 5 – 10 mins.
  12. Serve while hot!