Gougeres

So, as promised, I made gougeres for today's reading. "What's gougeres, precious?" you ask. Well!

Gougeres are a tasty French cheesy poufy thing. They look all sorts of fancy, with their puffed up and cheesy presentation, but really, they're as easy to throw together as your mama's biscuit recipe. Maybe easier, if your mama has a tendency to make things more complicated than they need to be.*

Anyway. I take my gougere recipe pretty much verbatim from here (the July 1960 issue of Epicurious! How retro!).

There's only one adaptation I make: I never cook it as long as the recipe says -- they're usually done in about 25 min (and I've tried this in ovens across San Francisco, so it's not just my own oven's special quirk. Perhaps it's the altitude).

It's so easy. Simple choux** batter, plus cheese. It'll look really funny after you've added the first two eggs, but just keep stirring. It all works out in the end, I promise.

*Not my mama! You should see her biscuit recipe. Clip, clap, clop and you're done.

** Pronounced shoe***. Add sugar, you're making eclairs. Add cheese, gougeres. It's the worlds most perfect dough.

*** A man I spent time with my freshman year of college was fond of shouting "Shoes! Everybody needs shoes!" when he answered the phone. His motivations for doing so are lost to history, but perhaps he, older (slighly) and wiser (much) than I, had already discovered the transcendent adaptability of choux.