Gougères Galore

Posted on by
5

I love gougères! Gougères are French cheese puffs that are cheesy, airy, and utterly addictive. I first had them in Bourgogne on a family’s small vineyard. They served us gougères as a palate cleanser between our different sips of wine, and I couldn’t get enough of them. I knew I had to make them for myself, but getting the gougères to turn out like those at the vineyard wasn’t easy. After much trial and error, I have gotten them to be just as I want them. And I can’t stop eating them. Gougères are surprisingly filling, and they have turned into a full meal for me on more occasions than I’d like to admit. Also, if you’re in the DC area and don’t feel like making these yourself, Central Michel Richard serves up some pretty delicious ones.

UPDATE: this recipe has proven less than reliable over time (smoke alarms and wasted cheese). I posted a revised recipe that produces consisteltly light and puffy results. 

To make gougères for yourself, start by preheating your oven to 425ºF. Then, in a small pot, bring 1 cup of water, 1 stick of butter, and 1 teaspoon of salt to a boil. While these ingredients heat up, grate 1 cup of gruyère cheese by hand on the smaller holes of a box grater. You may be tempted to use a food processor’s grating attachment to speed up this process, but unless your food processor has a small hole option, don’t do it. The larger cheese shreds tend to fall to the bottom of the gougères while they’re baking and burn. Learn from my mistakes!

When the butter and water come to a boil, remove the pot from the heat and pour in 1 cup of flour. Using a WHISK, mix it all together until it forms a ball that pulls away from the sides of the pot.

I added 1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper to the mixture at this point to give it a little kick, but you should omit the pepper if you’re going for classic gougères. Then, crack 1 egg into the pot. Using a WOODEN SPOON, mix the egg into the batter until it is fully incorporated. The egg will be really slimy and hard to mix at first, but keep going, and it will work in nicely. Repeat with 2 more eggs, one at a time, for a total of 3 eggs.

Then, add your cup of shredded cheese into the batter, and mix it until it’s fully incorporated. I’ve made jalapeno gougères before, and they are deliciously spicy. If you want to make those, you can mix 1 finely chopped jalapeno in when you add the cheese.

Drop tablespoon sized lumps of the batter onto an ungreased cookie sheet about 1 inch apart. If you’re making gougères in bulk, it might be easier to put all of the batter into a pastry/plastic bag and pipe it onto the cookie sheets. Bake the gougères on your oven’s middle rack for 15 minutes, making sure to rotate the pans half way through.

The gougères are done when they are golden brown, crisp on the outside, and sound hollow when they are tapped. Gougères are best eaten hot out of the oven, but you can also store them in the fridge and reheat them at 375ºF before serving. I could eat these forever. I made these particular gougères for a Eurovision party and was seriously concerned that I’d eat them all before arriving. It’s a valid concern. You’ve been warned!!

Shopping list:

  • Butter- 1 stick
  • Flour- 1 cup
  • Salt- 1 teaspoon
  • Cayenne pepper- 1 teaspoon
  • Eggs- 3
  • Gruyère cheese- 1 cup, shredded
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Get Artisnal: Strawberry-Infused Vodka

Posted on by
4

Infusing liquor is fun in more ways than one. It is so easy to do, and I like watching the crystal clear liquid slowly take on a vibrant hue. Strawberry-infused vodka is my favorite because it infuses pretty quickly, it is delicious on its own or mixed into cocktails, and everyone likes it! Now is not the time to let your imagination fail you- you can infuse just about anything!

To make a strawberry infusion, pour your favorite vodka into an air-tight glass jar. Then, get some organic strawberries. Organic is important because I’ve heard that strawberries are one of the fruits that get the most pesticides, and you definitely don’t want a pesticide-infused vodka. Wash your strawberries well, and slice them thinly with a knife. The thinner the slices, the faster your vodka will infuse. I used about 4-5 strawberries for 3/4 cup of vodka. Drop your strawberries into the jar, put on the lid, and give it a shake.

Leave the jar at room temperature, but put it in a cool, dark place. As time progresses, you will see the strawberries slowly start to lose their color as the vodka darkens. It’s a very cool transfer. Once a day, give the jar a shake. Depending on your ratio of strawberries to vodka, your infusion may take more or less time to infuse. Mine took about 2 days.

Open the jar and take a whiff. You should smell strawberries! Put a mesh strainer over another container, and pour your infusion through it to filter out the fruit. If you want all of the seeds and little strawberry hairs to get our of your vodka, you can line the strainer with a coffee filter.

Transfer your vodka back into the jar, and store it in the refrigerator. It should remain fresh for a few weeks, but eventually, the strawberries in the vodka will go bad. Don’t let it sit around forever. Now, on to consumption!

I have a few easy cocktails that are wonderful with this infusion. For a strawberry fizz, add 1 shot of strawberry vodka to a short glass. Fill the glass with ice cubes, and then top it off with sparkling water. Strawberry refreshment! If you want to balance the strawberry flavor a little bit, add in 4-5 drops of lemon juice.

For a strawberry lemonade, add 1 shot of strawberry vodka to a short glass. Fill the glass with ice cubes, and then top it off with lemonade. So easy, so good.

What are your favorite infusions?

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Slice and Bake Macadamia Nut Butter Cookies

Posted on by
6

Well, it’s official. I’m obsessed with Hawaii, and seriously, I’m not even done sharing all of my stories with you yet. But it’s time to get back to the food. One of my favorite snacks in Hawaii was macadamia nuts, either roasted and salted or baked into buttery, crispy cookies.

Here’s proof of my obsession. You can just make out the lone macadamia nut cookie at the front of my plate, under the hoisin rib but in front of the strawberries, steamed bao, dumpling, and kimchi fried rice. This was the best buffet I’ve ever attended. Anyway, long before my flight home, I resolved to bake macadamia nut cookies for myself. And with much success, here they are!

To make the cookies, cream 2 sticks of softened butter together with 3/4 cup of sugar. I used an electric mixer. I also finally figured out the trick to softening butter quickly! I put it in the microwave on the warming function for about a minute, and it came out perfectly. What a time saver!

Next, beat 2 egg yolks, one at a time, into the mixture. Once they’re incorporated, mix in 3/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract.

Add 1/4 teaspoon of salt, 2 cups of flour, and 2 cups of chopped macadamia nuts into the bowl, and fully incorporate them into the butter mixture. The cookie dough will be pretty crumbly, but it should stick together if you push down on it.

Now here comes the messy part. Spread a 1.5 foot piece plastic wrap out on your counter, and pile 1/3 of the cookie mixture onto it. Shape the dough into a log using your hands. Then, wrap the plastic around the dough, and continue squeezing and shaping it until it holds together. If your dough starts spilling out of the plastic, you can wrap another sheet around it. I made my dough into rectangles, but circular logs would also be nice. Repeat this process until all of your dough is used up. Place the logs into the refrigerator for at least 1.5 hours until they are very firm.

Once that time is up, preheat your oven to 350ºF. Unwrap one of the logs and place it on a cutting board. Using a very sharp knife, slice straight down the log crosswise to create your cookies. I cut my cookies to be about 1/4 inch thick, but try to keep the slices uniform so the cookies bake evenly.

Space the cookies on a baking sheet lined with a baking mat. They don’t spread, so you can squeeze them on. Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes until they just start to get brown around the edges. Rotate your pan halfway through for even cooking.

Once the cookies are cool enough to handle, place them on a cooling rack to fully crisp up. I like these cookies just as they are, but you could choose to drizzle them with melted chocolate, or you could bake white chocolate chunks into them from the beginning. These cookies are wonderful! Not too sweet, not too salty, and full of the buttery and nutty flavor I enjoyed on vacation.

These cookies are my current favorite snack. Well, except for plain salted and roasted macadamias. I even bought some macadamia nuts still in their shells from a shop in the Honolulu airport! I love cracking nuts, but these macadamias are impenetrable. I’ve tried a hammer and a nut cracker, but nothing works. Does anyone know the secret to getting inside?

Shopping list:

  • Butter- 2 sticks
  • Sugar- 3/4 cup
  • Egg yolks- 2
  • Vanilla extract- 3/4 teaspoon
  • Salt- 1/4 teaspoon
  • Flour- 2 cups
  • Macadamia nuts- 2 cups chopped
Print Friendly, PDF & Email