Classic Gougères Recipe (2024)

In France, groceries carry bags of unbaked frozen gougères. Freezing the prepared unbaked gougères works great, even for several weeks, making gougères a terrific make-ahead before a party. I like to freeze them on a baking sheet, then transfer them to a zip lock bag. Guests love them!

Where's the video? I cook so much better after watching Melissa do it first. And she makes me laugh.

This is a recipe for which you must follow the instructions precisely. Since you say you didn't put the flour in the saucepan, you missed a critical opportunity to COOK the flour, and let it be absorbed into the water and butter. If you do it again, do it the proper way. What you've got here are the instructions for classic cream puffs -- eclairs, gougeres, etc. are in that category and must be made according to the rules. No improvising. Square one. put flour into boiling water.

With this dough it is essential to add the flour to the boiling water mixture and then cook, stirring, until a skin forms on the bottom of the pan and the mixture pulls away from the sides of the pan. Without cooking the dough like this you'll end up with a soupy mess as you did. Try it again. It's worth it. You can use this dough, called chou paste, for so many things. You can do it!

I just ruined a batch following these suggestions, I wish I had followed the recipe. Based on your comment about a family recipe I suspect you also had relatives providing instruction, which is essential when using the "wooden spoon" method so you can recognize the states of the dough. I recommend to anyone trying this recipe to follow the recipe, not the commenters.

I made these yesterday and froze them. Tonight I tried baking 4 directly from frozen to the oven, for 15 minutes at 425 and 10 minutes at 350. They were absolutely amazing. I had to show my husband the freezer bag full of them in the freezer, because he was convinced I got them from a fancy French market downtown. Since I have a huge amount of eggs from my hens I will make more, with different cheeses, and some plain ones with sugar, and freeze them.

This is very similar to our old family recipe for cheese puffs that we make for New Year's.Put away your wooden spoon and stand mixer and do everything in one 3 quart saucepan with a handheld mixer. After the initial mixing on the stove, put the pan into cold water for a couple of minutes, stirring the dough a couple of times. Take it out of the water, beat in the eggs and cheese with the hand mixer. Then use a small 2 tsp cookie scoop instead of the bag. Neat and easy, yielding 50 gougères.

Why do so many recipes forget to list an ingredient? The ingredient list for this recipe does not include the 1 cup of water needed to prepare.

A good recipe, but strongly improved by adding a generous amount of fresh black pepper (I could not detect the cayenne at all). A few tips: as soon as they come out of the oven, poke a hole in the bottom to let the steam out so that they don't deflate (I use my thinnest pastry bag tip), and let them cool on a rack. You can bake and let cool ahead of time, put into Ziploc bags and freeze, then bake at 350 for 10 minutes when ready to serve. So easy!

When you bake them do you let them thaw first, then bake? Or bake from frozen and add more time?

Reread the recipe. You need to cook the flour and water together until it forms a stiff dough before adding the eggs. If you don't you get goop.

Plain gougeres are great for a christmas dessert - bake and cool, slice a hole in the bottom and stuff with softened peppermint or mint chip ice cream, then refreeze briefly (you want the puff soft but the ice cream fairly firm). Serve with hot chocolate sauce.

Gougères is a dish coming from Burgundy ; one would use plain pepper, not Cayenne pepper, and Comté cheese, rather than Gruyère, but I admit they are very close ; but certainly no Parmesan! Otherwise this dish is easy to make, and delicious!

Everyone loves gougeres, and the recipe is forgiving because you can refrigerate and even freeze the dough and they will bake up perfectly once thawed. Important not to overdo the amount of cheese or they will not puff correctly or be crispy enough. My favorite variation is with red pepper, pecorino and Cayenne for a hint of spiciness; have made them for many a dinner party and guests rave over it (Food & Wine, http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/red-pepper-garlic-pecorino-gougeres).

These came out great! My first time trying the piping and it was fun to do with my toddler assisting. I also substituted another hard cheese I had in the house for the gruyere and that worked out well.

11/2 c mix cheddar Parmesan

These are so good and received rave reviews when I made them for Christmas Eve (prepped a week in advance, froze, cooked the day of). Don’t tell the French, but I served them with a vinegar-spike aioli to cut through all the salty/cheesy goodness. But can someone tell me how to get them to look so round and gorgeous? Currently making (and freezing) another batch, and mine look like pale piles of poop — not these plump little morsels, pictured.

This was an epic fail for me. I don't know what I did wrong because I thought I was following the recipe exactly (and tried it twice). I ended up with a soupy mess--not the beautiful soft dough I was expecting. Any thoughts on what could have gone wrong?

I followed the directions except I substituted regular flour for cake flour. The dough was a bit soft to scoop up, so I opted for the piping bag. As I worked with the dough I found I could swirl the portions with a spatula to make them look a bit better. I will try this recipe again.

Can I substitute AP flour for the bread flour?

I made these yesterday - baked off 8 pc and froze the rest. I used Comte as I had no gruyere, added some nutmeg and they worked nicely. I'm making another batch today using cheddar & colby and a tad more cayenne.'Tis the season!!

I have been making gougeres for many years, always to raves,using roughly the above recipe. Plain old regular flour is all you need. I'd like to know why Melissa Clark calls for bread flour. I don't buy it since I don't make bread and have limited space in my kitchen.

Melissa, this is one awesome recipe that works with European ingredients. My oven only works on fan, so I think I will lower the set temp by 10C or so since they browned after only 8 minutes after dropping the 210C to 170C. I have had problems with the high fat content in European com sal butters, so was thrilled when you converted your recipe to measures by weight. I had been using too much European butter in my US recipe and the Gougeres came out like pancakes, flat and lifeless. Thank you!

With never-gluten family coming to a pre-Easter lunch, I made these with Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Flour, and it actually worked. I was afraid that the strands of gluten being missing, the pate au choux wouldn't beat into a smooth ball. It took more beating than usual, but it did come together and they were delicious. I also split the finished dough into two and added diced country ham to one half.

Be brave! I made these when I was a kid with no idea what I was doing and it worked. Follow the directions, and it will go ok. I sometimes fill these with chicken curry salad, just for funsies.

Substitute half of the water with milk. It makes them puff less evenly, but it brings out the cheese flavor and adds creaminess.

I make 1/4 of these without cheese and make anchovy puffs, stuffing them with anchovy paste mixed with garlic and mayonnaise after baking. One anchovy-loving guest in particular adores them.

For the same amount of liquid, flour and eggs, Melissa’s recipe calls for 4 T (1/4 c) butter while Doris Greenspan’s calls for 8 T (1/2 c). That seems like a big difference. I have a Larousse cookbook, and it calls for 5 T. Not sure how this variable affects the texture and flavor. Anyone compared the 2 recipes?

Do you have to use bread flour?

My dough came together in the boiling water much faster than 2-3 minutes. It was more like 30 seconds maybe even less. Should I continue cooking it for the full 2 minutes even though it’s more or less a ball that I’m trying to stir around?