Gougeres are French Cheese Puffs served with pre dinner cocktails, as finger food at parties, and in place of boring bread rolls to dunk into soups and stews. One of the best things I ate in France!
Simple to make, they reheat 100% perfectly – but the best part is smugly telling your friends “they’re French, darling” (I hear this in a posh British accent😂).
Gougeres recipe – French Cheese Puffs!
This Gougeres recipe comes to you via the hostess of a charming bed & breakfast called La Saura in Burgundy, France. We had a week long stay there just a couple of months ago, using it as our home base to explore the region.
And after a long day of sight seeing, there are no words to describe our delight when we arrived back at the villa to be greeted with a pile of warm cheese puffs, fresh out of the oven, washed down with sparkling Kir Royales.
So very chic. So French!!
What Gougeres taste like
They’re crusty on the outside, soft and hollow on the inside, and they’re very, very cheesy. Essentially, they are the savoury cheesy version of everybody’s favourite Profiteroles!
As with profiteroles, I’ve been tempted to pipe something into the hollow centre. But to be honest, these cheese puffs have enough flavour as they are – certainly plenty of cheese – so anything more would just make it overly rich.
Plus, the light-as-air texture is the signature feature of Gougeres! (Also, here’s how to pronounce Gougeres 😂)
What you need for Gougeres (Cheese Puffs)
Here’s what you need to make Gougeres. It’s adapted from this recipe (it’s in French!), with the minor change being an increase in cheese (under instruction from Jocelyn the B&B host who gave me this recipe!😂).
Best cheese for Gougeres
The cheese that is traditionally used is gruyere, Emmental or Comte. I’ve also made these with Swiss, cheddar and tasty (Aussie/NZ cheese) and they came out just as good. So I imagine they will be just fine with any other cheese as long as it’s the melting sort (ie not feta, parmesan, ricotta).
Also, I’d recommend avoiding mozzarella – it doesn’t have enough flavour or salt.
IMPORTANT: Grate the cheese yourself, unless you’re fortunate enough to be living in France in which case you have access to the finely shredded Emmental sold at the shops. Typically, store bought grated cheese is thicker than shredding your own, so it might weigh down the batter and prevent your Gougeres from puffing up which would be so sad. 😢
How to make Gougeres
These French Cheese Puffs are as fabulously easy to make as they are to eat. The part where the egg is mixed in does require some vigorous mixing to incorporate the egg fully – it’s a good arm work out! If you want to take a more leisurely path, just use an electric beater. 🙂
How to serve Gougeres
Ah, the best part – how to eat them!!
In France, they are served as appetisers and on the side of meals in place of boring old dinner rolls.😉
With Meals
Gougeres are placed on tables in bread baskets before the meal is served, to nibble on then to dunk into soups and thick stews, and mop plates clean. Here are a few suggestions for dishes to create your own French Provincial extravaganza!
Pre dinner nibbles
Serve them as finger food at parties, or pre dinner nibbles with cocktails – specifically, Kir Royales (French champagne cocktail) if you want to be on theme!
In fact, the actual Gougeres in the photos and most of the ones in the video (some fell into my mouth🤷🏻♀️) were taken to a Christmas party the next day. They go soft after they cool down, but a few minutes in the oven was all they needed to resurrect their perfect crispy exteriors, so they are 100% perfect for making ahead! – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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French Cheese Puffs (Gougeres)
Ingredients
- 1 cup (250ml) water
- 80g / 5.5 tbsp butter , unsalted, cut into 1.5 cm / 0.5" cubes
- 1 cup (150g) flour , plain / all purpose
- 3/4 tsp salt , kosher/cooking salt
- Pinch nutmeg (powder or freshly grated)
- Pinch black pepper
- 4 eggs (~60 - 65g / 2oz each)
- 200g / 2 cups Gruyère cheese , freshly shredded (Note 1)
Topping
- 50g / 1/2 cup Gruyere cheese, extra , freshly shredded (Note 1)
- 1 egg yolk , for brushing
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 220°C / 425°F (200°C fan). Lightly grease 2 trays then line with parchment / baking paper.
- Place water, butter and salt in a saucepan over medium high heat. Bring to a boil until butter is full melted.
- Remove from stove, add flour, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Mix until incorporated.
- Return to stove on LOW heat and mix for 1 minute (this dries the mixture out, see video for before/after).
- Remove from stove, leave for 2 minutes.
- Add 1 egg, mix vigorously until incorporated - batter splits at first, but it always comes together!
- Add 3 more eggs, one at a time, mixing until incorporated before adding the next. Good arm workout! (Or use electric beater)
- Stir in 2 cups cheese.
- Drop 1 tablespoon mounds onto trays (small cookie scoop is ideal, otherwise use a measuring tablespoon and a teaspoon to scrape out. Can make larger - good for dunking!)
- Brush with yolk, then top with a pinch of reserved Cheese for topping.
- Bake 25 minutes.
- Allow to cool for 15 minutes so they become crusty and inside dries out a bit.
- Serve warm as pre dinner nibbles, finger food at gatherings, or dunk into soups and stews!
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
Shopping for a new dining table. Dozer made it clear which one he approved of…
I think my eggs were bigger than Nagi’s, so I ended up with a runnier dough, but I just put them in a mini cupcake pan and they turned out great! I was really surprised how they puffed up despite having no raising agent. They were absolutely delicious and I only had to dirty up one dish!
How do u save recipe to recipe box or copy
Just divine, I trust in the recipe!! Yes, it split, yes, it came together. Bragging to the family that I can now cook french food! Husband loves them cold.
Mine did not puff up well. They just flattened out and spread…they tasted fabulous, though. Any advice for next time (there WILL be a next time!)
I made these for a social viewing of Le Tour de France! French snacks for a French Race 😄
Who knew choux pastry was so straightforward?!
They were even better after reheating as they were that much more crispy on the outside and soft, light and cheesy inside!
Thanks Nagi (and Jocelyn)! 😄
Delicious and easy to make. If I wanted to make them in minature size (teaspoon size), what adjustment to baking time and temperature would you suggest?
Your recipes have been my go to lately. I just made the baked quesadillas and they were awesome. Tonight I’m trying the puffs (very good)and hope they will be the safe amount of for my bread cravings. Thank you
That’s assuming that you can restrict yourself to one or two Valerie – I can’t!! N x
Made this recipe today for a get together I have later tonight. Anytime a recipe uses weights for measurements, you can count on it being reliable. Followed the instructions, exactly, except to cool my dough I put it in my kitchen aid and mixed it on medium speed for a bit to cool the dough faster before whipping in the eggs. Cannot wait to bring these to the party later tonight!
You’ve got that right Megan – weights is the way to go when cooking for accuracy and best results!! N x
So easy! So delicious!
This is the first time that I have made Gougeres. The recipe was easy to follow and they turned out great. I plan to serve them with a ham salad, chicken salad, salmon spread or with meats and cheeses. They don’t have a strong flavor so today I made Asiago and sprinkled super hot habanero on half of them. I liked the suggestion of adding finely chopped green onion that someone made as well. Thanks for sharing!
All of those are great variations!! N x
Hi Nagi from the U.K.
Your recipes are amazing!! I just made the focaccia which was lush and before I make the cheese puffs can you advise if they can both be frozen? Thank you
I have made them. they are great. Freezing them is no problem. I reheated in the oven them straight from freezer
So delicious & easy! Thank you for sharing such a fabulous recipe!
YUM! Well… have just made these using a cup of cheddar and one of Red Leicester. I’m using a benchtop oven and had two trays, one on top of the other. The top one started to darken so I swapped them over after 13-14 minutes. They have just come out, I forgot the egg topping and extra cheese and they taste fabulous, but… they didn’t maintain a ball shape! Rather they kind of spread out into super-thick little pancake shapes. However they are still puffy inside (I didn’t let them cool for 15 minutes either.) Very tasty but I’m wondering what makes the difference in terms of letting them hold their shape?
Okay so I went hunting for reasons for flat gougeres, and I found three main reasons. Firstly the softer the cheese, the heavier it will be. Secondly it makes a difference when the salt goes in, and here I have to confess (forgive me Nagi!) that I did not use three-quarters of a teaspoon of salt, but only half – because, y’know, I’m thingie about salt. Well, it makes a difference, not only in quantity but when it’s added – if you add it directly to the eggs combined in a bowl and then add a third or a quarter of the bowl at a time, the salt helps the egg proteins to expand quickly and then set, helping to hold big bubbles of air inside the gougere. Lastly, adding an extra egg white may help – it adds protein to aid structure and water to add steam, to help the expansion/ bubble process.
https://www.cooksillustrated.com/articles/576-bringing-back-gougeres
It sounds like you figured it out! N x
It would be SO helpful if your recipe had included information on how many pieces this recipe makes!
It states in recipe 24 pieces..
I made it . It was a big hit in my family. Thank you for the recipe.
Love these little nuggets of heaven. So easy to make and are great with soup. Will they work with gluten free flour?
Unfortunately they won’t sorry Sherrill! N x
Hi Nagi. How many days in advance can these be made?
Hi Awais, I’d say 2 days – see the reheating tips in the recipe notes. N x
These are so delicious, just made a batch for a small dinner party tonight,to have alongside your brisket recipe. With a side of your no mayo coleslaw (a game changer). I used Norco natural elbo style cheese and they had great flavour! Thank you for another winner.
This looks so amazing! Add me to the list of people asking if you can make the batter ahead of time, refrigerate, and then bake when you’re ready. 🙂
Just made my first batch!! So easy, so impressive! I doubt these will last long in my house..yum!
Just made these and scaled it to a Serving size of 12. Dough was very loose and I had to add more flour and cheese, but they still came out as hard as hockey pucks. Threw them all out.