Cheesy Poofs Kick Ass!

The apéro is one of the most fully embraced French institutions in our house.  Paris doesn’t have the preponderance of Happy Hours that you find in most American cities (“Le Happy Hours” usually go from about 5-8pm which is nice, but beers are still 5 euros – not exactly a deal), so Nick and I almost always have an apéro when he gets home from work.  Often the nibbles consist of peanuts or pretzels or something equally simple.  But if we’re having company, or I’m feeling energetic, we’ll do something a little more involved.  The ever-popular bacon-onion dip makes frequent appearances, but the subject of cheesy poofs has been coming up more and more.

Gougères are a French classic: airy puffs of savory pâte à choux flavored with cheese (traditionally Gruyère).  They make perfect little bites for the apèro - bite-size, no plates or forks required, and very very more-ish.  Being a pâtissière, I have made a batch or two of choux in my day, so I really have no excuse not to make these more often.

1.Cooking pâte à choux, 2. Savory choux dough, 3. Not mixed in, 4. Mixed in, 5. Testing the pâte à choux, 6. Test Successful!

And yet I don’t.  Pâte à choux, which literally translates to “cabbage paste” (sounds appetizing, doesn’t it?), is named for the way the baked puffs resemble little heads of cabbage, so the story goes.  It is actually a quick dough to put together – I made these while Nick was in the shower – and once baked, the piped choux, be it in the form of puffs, éclairs, wheels, or even swans, freezes very well.  The problem is that the process sounds a bit fussy and complicated when in practice it isn’t.  You start out by explaining that you boil water, milk (choux made without milk will be drier, less tender, less beautifully golden brown, and all around less appetizing), butter salt and sugar.  Then you stir in the flour and any dried spices you may be using and cook it until the dough forms a ball.  And then you have to stir in eggs one at a time until the ideal consistency is reached before folding in grated cheese, piping it out into the desired shapes and baking it.  (And if you leave out the cheese and spices and use a little more sugar, you can make any of the myriad of French sweets based on the ultra-versatile dough.)

1. Choux plus cheese, 2. Piping bag, 3. Piping out cheesy poofs, 4. Piped choux

I know, it all sounds like a bit of a hassle.  You just have to trust me when I say it’s not.  And the payoff – savory, cheese-inflected, French pastries that somehow just beg for a more plebeian name – is way more than you would expect from such a minimal amount of effort.