Comte Gougeres Cheese Puffs

These gougeres or Comte French cheese pastry puffs will absolutely wow at any Christmas celebration or cocktail party. These are so light and collapse in the mouth in a cloud of cheesy happiness when you bite into these gorgeous little French choux puffs! This is a pushy recipe Dear Reader.

I first tried these choux pastry gougeres at a Gozney supper club with chef Analiese Gregory. They were magnificent. I was so besotted that I looked up her recipe. I made them and they were good but they weren't quite as good as the ones I had that night. Perhaps chefs leave a tip or two out or assume knowledge. So I added my own tips from years of making sweet choux puffs and I promise these may be the best gougeres you have ever tasted! They are definitely the best ones I've eaten!

Comté is a hard French Alpine cheese, probably my favourite hard cheese. It's not hard to get, supermarkets now stock it and it has a wonderful nutty flavour to it. Comté is made from unpasteurised cow's milk in the Franche-Comté region of eastern France, near the Swiss border. Comte has the highest annual production of all French Appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC) cheeses. I'm making these as a Christmas party appetiser!

Tips For Making Gougeres or Cheese Puffs

1 - You can also use any hard cheese with these gougere cheese puffs - parmesan or pecorino works well in this recipe too. Try making a cacio e pepe version with grated pecorino and black pepper!

2 - The egg is the only rising agent in gougeres. We don't use other rising agents like baking powder in choux pastry.

3- The baking temperature is key for making gougeres. The dough is cold or at least room temperature and the oven must be hot to make them rise. I bake my gougeres at 220C/440F fan forced. This is to prevent the centre from being soft and doughy inside and allows the dough to puff up to its full potential.

4 - Another key tip to ensure that your gougeres are crispy and not doughy inside is to prick the gougere to let steam come out of it and then return it to the oven for another 5 minutes.

5 - Gougeres are best served hot from the oven. They will lose their crispness over time and deflate.

6 - Tip: add 100g/3.5ozs diced guanciale or ham to your gougeres!

7 - You can also freeze the cooked gougeres before you add the extra cheese and chives on top. Thaw the gougeres and then bake in a 180C/350F oven for 5 minutes to refresh. I sometimes even bake them from frozen too for 6-7 minutes.

These gougeres are for real cheese lovers and the flavour of the cheese really comes out. Speaking of cheese, Mr NQN and I inadvertently ventured into the world of cheese making the other day. When we eat out, I sometimes like having at least 2 drinks on the go at the same time, perhaps even 3. One might be sparkling water, a caffeinated beverage of some sort and then a fun drink. On this day I had a matcha latte that I was really enjoying along with a sparkling water. I don't know about you Dear Reader but I can sip a drink all day long while Mr NQN sucks the whole thing down in the space of a minute.

I took out the ice from the latte as I didn't want it to water my drink down as I knew that we were in for a long drive. I sipped on my latte for the next few hours and then we arrived at our accommodation and unloaded our bags. I didn't think about the drink again until a couple of days later when we got into our car. Everything that we were doing while away was in walking distance so we didn't need the car but when we opened the car door the smell hit us.

"What is that smell?" I said recoiling at the pungent, hot odour.

With the inch or so of drink left in the cup we had made cheese. Matcha latte cheese to be exact. We quickly wound down the windows and discarded the offending "cheese" cup. I can say that I don't think car cheese is about to become a thing but it was remarkably effective at making the cheese quickly!

So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever accidentally fermented something? Do you sip on a drink all day long or are you a fast drinker?

Comte Gougeres Cheese Puffs

Adapted from Analiese Gregory, Roger's Gougeres

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 25 minutes

Makes 1 dozen large gougeres

• 220ml/7.7floz water
• 110g/3.9ozs butter
• 1 teaspoon/5g fine salt
• 120g/4oz flour
• 180g/6ozs eggs, beaten (around 4 small eggs)
• 75g/2.7ozs Comte cheese, finely grated plus 100g/3.5ozs extra cheese to sprinkle
• 2 tablespoon fresh chives, finely sliced

Step 1 - Preheat oven to 220C/440F fan forced (very hot) and line two baking trays with parchment. Place the water, butter and salt in a small saucepan on medium heat and allow to melt the butter. Whisk this mixture and then add in the flour and stir it into the mixture using a spatula or wooden spoon on low temperature. The mixture should start to pull away from the sides after 1-2 minutes.

Step 2 - Place this dough in a stand mixer and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes until the dough has cooled off. With the mixer going, add in the beaten egg in a thin stream until combined. Then add in the grated cheese and beat until mixed in. The dough should be glossy and cool to the touch.

Step 3 - Place the dough in a piping bag (you can also use an ice cream scoop or two spoons) and pipe 5cm/2inch rounds with 4cm/1.6inches between each one - I put 6 gougeres on a tray. With wet fingers, press down on any spikes in the pastry from the piping. Sprinkle with some extra cheese (reserving some for right at the end). Bake for 15 minutes. Remove trays from oven and with a paring knife poke a hole into the gougere to release steam. Return the gougeres to the oven and bake for 5 minutes.

Step 4 - Grate extra Comte over the top and sprinkle with chives. You can also freeze the cooked gougeres before you add the final blanket of cheese and chives on top. Thaw the gougeres and then bake in a 180C/350F oven for 5 minutes to refresh.