Description

These golden-brown puffs of choux pastry are flavoured with Parmesan cheese and a blend of fresh herbs. Try to eat these the same day they're made - while they're still pretty good the next day, they're really at their best when they're still warm from the oven.

Ingredients

Scale

1/2 cup water
3 tbsp butter, cut into cubes
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1/2 cup flour
2 large eggs
3/4 cup grated Gruyère (or any other hard cheese), divided
1 tsp fresh thyme, finely minced
1 tsp fresh basil, finely minced

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Instructions

Preheat oven to 425F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a medium-sized saucepan set oven medium-high heat, combine the water, butter, salt and pepper, and heat up until the butter is completely melted.
Immediately add the flour, all at once, and stir vigorously until the dough pulls together into a smooth ball. Remove from heat and let rest two minutes to allow the dough to cool off slightly.
Add the eggs, one at a time, stirring well after each addition. (Don't panic if the batter looks like it's not coming together at first - just keep stirring, and after a minute or so it'll smooth right out.)
Add 2/3 cup of the grated cheese to the dough, along with the fresh herbs, and stir well until evenly combined. Scrape the dough into a pastry bag fitted with a wide plain tip, and pipe small cherry-tomato-sized mounds of dough onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing them an inch or so apart. (Alternatively, you can use a 1 tbsp scoop or even a regular spoon to drop dollops of dough onto the cookie sheet - this is my preferred method, because I'm lazy like that.) Sprinkle the top of each puff with a pinch of the remaining cheese.
Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 375F and bake for another 20 to 25 minutes, or until the gougeres are golden-brown all over. Serve immediately, if at all possible.

Notes

To make ahead, pipe the choux dough onto the prepared baking sheets. You can either refrigerate the dough if baking later on in the day, or for longer term storage, place in the freezer and then transfer the frozen gougeres to freezer bags (they'll keep up to 2-3 months this way). If you've frozen your gougeres, add an extra 5 minutes or so to the baking time.

Prep Time: 20 mins
Cook Time: 35 mins
Category: Appetiser
Cuisine: French