Gruyere Cheese Gougeres Filled with Bechamel

When we did a recent class with Patisse, they gave us a container of the choux pastry to go home with us. I knew straight away that I wanted to make the cheese gougeres with it and I heeded chef Vincent Gadan's suggestion of using Gruyere cheese and filling them with bechamel sauce. Gougeres are a traditional wine tasting snack originating from Burgundy in France. I made them and they were a little too big (what's new you might ask, I always make things bigger than they're meant to be) but they were deliciously moreish and easily scoffable and great for cocktail parties. And if you are indeed under 30 and have never tried a gougere, please don't turn thirty before trying these!

When I was young, I thought that the most sophisticated things were French. I loved those wobbly supermarket creme caramels where you would break off the tabs and the whole caramel would come shimmying and wobbling down the sides. I always thought that it was a marvellous feat that it was able to do that-it seemed almost magical or as if science were involved.

I was in my thirties before I tried a gougere at of all places Alain Ducasse at the Dorcester Hotel. I didn't like a terribly sheltered existence at all, quite the opposite at least food-wise, but when I sat down to a bowl of gougeres I became hooked. I was all too familiar with choux buns as a sweet item but as a savoury item they were a wonderful revelation. I scoffed gougere after gougere, forgetting the fact that I was about to embark on the degustation meal to end all degustations.

So tell me Dear Reader, what is one food that you think everyone should try?

Gruyere Cheese Gougeres

Adapted from a Patisse recipe

Makes about 4 dozen gougeres

Choux pastry

• 100g/3 1/2 ozs butter

• 125g/ 1/2 cup water

• 125g/1/2 cup milk

• 1 teaspoon caster or superfine sugar

• 1 tablespoon salt

• 150g/5ozs plain flour

• 5 large eggs

• 1 cup finely grated gruyere cheese plus 1/2 cup to sprinkle on top

• 1 egg, beaten extra

Gruyere Bechamel Sauce

• 4 cups milk

• 60grams butter

• 1/3 cup plain flour

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1 cup of gruyere cheese grated

• 1 pinch of nutmeg

• 1/2 teaspoon piment d'espelette chilli powder (optional)

METHOD

Step 1 - Preheat oven to 190C/380F. Place the butter, milk, water, sugar & salt into a saucepan to boil. Add flour and then stir the mix with a wooden spoon for 5 minutes until the batter pulls away from the side of the pot. Remove from heat. Place mix into a mixing bowl.

Step 2 - While beating the mix with paddle, gradually add the eggs and cheese. Store overnight in the refrigerator.

Step 3 - Pipe mixture into small balls on a baking tray lined with silicon/baking paper making sure to leave an inch space between them. With the extra beaten egg and a fork dipped lightly in it flatten the poking up tips by making a cross hatch pattern on top. I find I need to re-dip the fork in the egg after ever three presses or so. Sprinkle with extra cheese and bake in the oven for 20 minutes at 190C/380F and then turn oven down and bake at 160c/320F for another 10 minutes.

Step 4 - Meanwhile, make the bechamel sauce. Firstly heat the milk up-I always find this easier to incorporate warm milk into a bechamel but you can use cold milk. In a saucepan heat the butter and once melted, "cook" the flour in the butter, stirring constantly for 1 minute.  Gradually add the milk whisking at the same time adding 1/2 cup at a time until it is a smooth consistency. Add finely grated cheese, nutmeg, salt and piment d'espelette if using and allow to cool. If it is lumpy, pass through a sieve (not too fine a sieve though).

Step 5 - When the bechamel is cool and the choux buns are ready, poke a small hole at the bottom of the choux buns (I used the end of a chopstick) and wriggle it around a bit. Then place a small tip (about the size of the hole) in a piping bag and fill it with the bechamel sauce. Serve with wine. Or just eat a dozen by themselves. I won't tell anyone.