Gougeres (French cheese puffs)

Gougeres transform relatively simple ingredients into tasty cheesy bites with gently crisp outside and soft, light inside. A delicious snack.

📝 Ingredients

• 4 oz gruyere cheese (or comte/emmental, divided)
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 7 tbsp unsalted butter (cut into chunks)
• 1 cup all purpose flour (plain flour)
• 4 large eggs
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 pinch pepper
• 1 pinch nutmeg

👨‍🍳 Instructions

1. 1Preheat the oven to 400F/200C and line a baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment. Have a piping bag ready with a wide tip. Grate around 3 1/2oz/100g of the cheese coarsely - this will go in the mixture - and grate the remaining 1/2oz/15g finely and keep separate (this is to go on top).
2. 2Place the milk, water and butter in a saucepan and place over a medium heat. Warm, stirring fairly regularly, until the butter melts. Continue to warm until the mixture comes to a simmer then remove from the heat.
3. 3Add the flour off the heat and using a spatula, mix well so that there aren't any clumps of flour. The mixture will probably look a little like mashed potato at this point.
4. 4Return the mixture to the heat, and cook for around 5 minutes over a medium heat, stirring regularly, until the mixture dries out a little and comes together in a smooth clump. You may get a little residue on the side of the pan.
5. 5Remove the mixture from the heat and let it cool a minute. You want it still warm but not so hot the eggs cook when they are added. Add the eggs one at a time to the mixture, stirring vigorously to incorporate them into the mixture. Don't worry if it looks like it is separating at first, just keep mixing and it will blend in.
6. 6Once all of the eggs are added, add the coarsely-grated cheese, salt, pepper and nutmeg and mix all through so well distributed. Transfer the mixture to a piping bag.
7. 7Pipe mounds of the mixture onto the prepared baking sheet in rows, each around 1 - 1 1/2inches diameter (3 - 4cm) with around 2 inches (5cm) between them to allow for them expanding. If you need to, you can add a little more to any mound after to even out sizes.
8. 8Once you have piped them all, dampen your finger and gently smooth off the edges to make them relatively rounded. Sprinkle a little of the finely-grated cheese on top of each mound. Bake for around 20 -25 minutes until golden brown on top.