So... Richard III had a wonderful opening! Then, on our day off, castmate Laurie Birmingham had a gathering to celebrate her birthday. It was potluck (we are actors, after all), and I was in the mood for some interesting time in the kitchen...
So I decided to make pâté à choux and turn it into cheddar gougères with a little smoked salt on top!
Pâté à choux is a wonderful dough to know how to make, and it's a lot of fun as well. And once you master it, gougères, cream puffs, éclairs... all of these are in your repertoire.
The basic recipe couldn't be simpler:
1C liquid (I used ½ milk and ½ water.)
1 stick unsalted butter
A good pinch of Kosher salt
1C AP flour
4 large eggs
First, bring the liquid, butter, and salt to a boil...
Dump all of the flour in at once (trust me)...
With a wooden spoon, whip to combine.
Next, with the heat on low, continue to stir vigorously for 2 minutes... until the dough begins to dry out and you see a film start to appear on the bottom of the pan...
Then put the dough into a large bowl and let it cool for about 1½ minutes...
Next, add the eggs, one at a time, beating so that each egg is incorporated before adding the next. You will think you've made a horrible mistake as the dough will look like an increasingly curdled mess with each addition... but keep beating and it will come together... really.
Of course, the previous step could also be done in a food processor... and you can add all the eggs at once. But do try it by hand at least once... it's kind of cool!
Now you have the pâté à choux.
To transform it into gougères...
For the classic recipe, beat in 3 oz. of grated gruyère cheese, a bit of nutmeg, and some black pepper. Of course, I decided to change things up a bit, so instead of gruyère, I used sharp cheddar, a pinch of smoked paprika, and a lot of pepper...
Scrape the dough into a zip-lock bag, cut a small hole in one corner, and pipe mounds onto a parchment or Silpat-lined sheet pan. The size is up to you... I like small ones because these are so rich.
So I piped out about ¾ tablespoon-sized mounds. There will be a little point at the top... dip your finger in water and smooth down that point so it doesn't burn. Sprinkle each one with more cheese (I used Parmesan for this step) and, for this particular variation, I added a few grains of smoked salt to the top.
Bake in a preheated 400° oven for about 22-25 minutes until puffed and golden brown, reversing the sheet pan at the halfway point.
A great thing about gougères: once they've cooled, if you have any left (you won't!!!), you can freeze them and reheat at 350° for 7-10 minutes!
Photo: Eric Damon Smith