To: Nina Cerbo
Cc: Pat Cerbo
Sent: Tue, October 26, 2010 7:10:15 PM
Subject: Recipes for Top Secret Chocolate Mousse and Gougeres (Cheesy Puffs)
These two recipes were in this week's Providence Journal and sound yummy...taken from a cookbook that is right up my alley -- long, because the author "takes painstaking care to be exact and leaves little room for misinterpretation!" But her goal is to make french cooking "approachable," and the mousse sounds easy. |
Recipe: Gougères
Serve puffy gougères cooled or still steaming hot.
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup water
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
5 large eggs, room temperature
1 1/2 cups coarsely grated cheese, such as Gruyere or Cheddar (about 6 ounces)
Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper.
Bring the milk, water, butter and salt to a rapid boil in a heavy-bottomed medium saucepan over high heat. Add the flour all at once, lower the heat to medium-low, and immediately start stirring energetically with a wooden spoon or heavy whisk. The dough will come together and a light crust will form on the bottom of the pan. Keep stirring — with vigor –– for another minute or two to dry the dough. The dough should now be very smooth.
Turn the dough into the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or into a bowl that you can use for mixing with a hand mixer or a wooden spoon and elbow grease. Let the dough sit for a minute, then add the eggs one by one and beat, beat, beat until the dough is thick and shiny. Make sure that each egg is completely incorporated before you add the next, and don’t be concerned if the dough separates — by the time the last egg goes in, the dough will come together again. Beat in the grated cheese. Once the dough is made, it should be spooned out immediately.
Using about 1 tablespoon of dough for each gougère, drop the dough from a spoon onto the lined baking sheets, leaving about 2 inches of puff space between the mounds.
Slide the baking sheets into the oven and immediately turn the oven temperature down to 375 degrees. Bake for 12 minutes, then rotate the pans from front to back and top to bottom. Continue baking until the gougères are golden, firm, and yes, puffed, another 12 to 15 minutes or so. Serve warm or transfer the pans to racks to cool.
Makes 36.
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