I see choux pastry or pâte à choux and think those look delicious. I watch them made and think, hmmmm, can I do that? Here's where I find out by making Gougères, a savory version with cheese and herbs.
The Backstory
French pastry books show all of these wonderful recipes that use pâte à choux. Every baking competition I watch on tv has at least one competition with it. I had to try to make it, right?! I saw the Gougères recipe in the March/April 2024 issue of Bake from Scratch and though, now's the time.
The Bake
While the plan had been to use the Bake from Scratch recipe, I found that I was missing some ingredients. I ended up using a combination of the Easy Choux Pastry recipe from Bigger Bolder Baking (BBB) and Gougères from King Arthur Baking (KAB). The BBB video was very helpful in understanding the texture needed and Kye from KAB show how to test. I did make the mistake of adding the last bit of egg from adding it a little bit at a time and it made it too loose (seems to be a habit). I added more flour a tablespoon at a time to fix it.
The ingredients I used were:
- 225 ml Whole Milk
- 115 g Butter, unsalted and cubed
- 1/4 tsp Kosher Salt
- 142 g Pastry Flour (what I had on hand in lieu of all-purpose flour)
- 4 Eggs, room temperature
- 113 g Fontina Cheese, shredded
- Herbs and Spices
During the bake, my place smelled so good, I could hardly wait for them to be done.
THE RESULTS
I need more salt. I more practice piping. The first batch was a fail. On to the second batch...
WILL I BAKE IT AGAIN
Oh for sure! It is far less intimidating than I thought it would be, plus now I think I want to make éclairs, profiteroles, and so many other yummy things that can be made from pâte à choux.
