Stephanie Alexander’s gougères

Ingredients

• 100 gm Gruyère
• 1 egg yolk, lightly beaten
• Choux pastry
• 60 gm unsalted butter
• Pinch of salt
• 185 ml (3/4 cup) water
• 125 gm plain flour, sifted
• 3 eggs

Instructions

1. 1

   1: Preheat oven to 180°C fan-forced. For choux pastry, combine butter, salt and water in a saucepan. Bring to the boil and remove from heat. Add flour all at once, stirring to combine, and return pan to heat. Stir over medium heat until mixture dries out and starts to leave sides of pan, about 3 minutes. Transfer to a food processor or electric mixer with a paddle beater. Add eggs one at a time, incorporating each well before adding the next.

2. 2

   2: Finely grate cheese. Add three-quarters of the cheese to pastry and mix. Transfer pastry to a piping bag. Cover a baking tray with baking paper and pipe on rounds of pastry 3 cm in diameter. Paint top of each puff with egg yolk and scatter with remaining cheese. Without delay, transfer puffs to oven for 10 minutes. Do not disturb them. Lower temperature to 160°C fan-forced and cook for an additional 20 minutes. Serve at once. If you are delayed, the puffs can be held in a turned-off oven for 5-10 minutes or transferred to a warming oven.