Chive and Caper Gougeres
A gougeres is a baked savory choux pastry made of choux dough mixed with cheese. In our recipe, we use parmesan to create a delightfully savoury little pastry ball. Then, to make it extra special, we fill it with cream cheese or labna spiked with chives and capers.
Chive and Caper Gougeres
Makes 12 large or 24 small
Ingredients:
Pastry:
50g butter, cut into small pieces
60ml cold water
65ml milk
pinch salt
75g plain flour, sieved
2 eggs beaten
10g parmesan, grated
Filling:
1 tbsp chives, very finely chopped
1 tbsp capers, drained & chopped very fine
40g cream cheese or labna
freshly ground black pepper
Method:
To make the pastry:
Pre-heat the oven to 200C/Gas 6.
Measure all the choux paste ingredients out carefully.
Pour the water, milk, butter and salt into a high sided saucepan.
Bring the water mixture to a rolling boil for one minute and then immediately remove from the heat.
Stirring quickly all the time add the sifted flour.
When the mixture is smooth return to the heat and stir for one minute, this is the drying out stage and important to do to get a good firm choux paste.
Tip the paste into a bowl, immediately add the eggs.
Using a spatula, stir well until the paste is very smooth. Stir in the parmesan.
You can keep the choux for a few hours at this stage before using.
Use a piping bag to pipe out 12 balls. Pipe onto a parchment lined baking sheet.
Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes until puffed up and golden, then bake for 10 more minutes to dry out, leaving the door ajar to let the steam escape.
Take out of the oven and make a slit in the bottom of each gougere, this allows the steam to escape and stops them turning soggy when they cool down.
Place on wire rack to cool.
To make the filling:
Mix the chives, capers and cream cheese together and season with pepper.
Fill the choux with the cream cheese filling.
Tips:
If you don’t have a piping bag, spoon the choux into 12 x 50p sized balls.
For small gourgeres make 24 and reduce the cooking time by a third.