Second-Stab Saturday: Cheddar Cheese Puff Bread!

The weather may be getting warmer as spring goes on, but we recently had a random chilly night. Although it wasn't quite cold enough to turn on the heater, we were wearing jackets in the house after sunset. It was the perfect time to revisit a recipe that involves an unspeakably hot oven. (Indeed, it may be our last chance of the year.) And so, we decided to make cheddar gougères! 

 Before proceeding, let's reiterate the recipe:

French Yorkshire Pudding or La Gougère Bourguignonne 4⅜ fluid ounces milk (½ cup plus 2¼ tsp) 1 oz butter (2 tbsp) 2 eggs ¾ teaspoon salt, 2½ oz flour (½ cup plus 2 tbsp) 2 eggs 1½ oz diced cheese, divided into 1 and ½ oz ½ oz grated cheese Before beginning, crack one of the eggs into a small bowl. Then beat it, and set aside a small spoonful to brush onto the top. Select a small saucepan that can handle using an electric mixer in it. (You can beat this by hand with a whisk, but if you use a mixer you'll be glad.) Put milk, butter and salt in the saucepan. Heat slowly until butter melts and the milk boils. Toss in flour all at once. Allow to boil for a few seconds until the milk begins to bubble over the flour. Turn off heat, insert an electric handmixer, and beat on high speed until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, beating each time until mixture is smooth. Stir in 1 oz diced cheese. Spread mixture into buttered shallow cooking dish (mine was about 5" x 7"). Brush with the reserved spoonful of beaten egg, then sprinkle on remaining diced and grated cheese. Set aside until it gets completely cold (you can refrigerate it to speed this up). When ready to bake, heat oven to gas mark 8, 450°F, or 230°C. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the top is a deep golden brown. Allow to cool for a few minutes, and serve warm. Leftovers can be placed on an uncovered pan and reheated at 350°F (180°C, or gas mark 4). Note: You can assemble this ahead of time and put it in the refrigerator until ready to bake. If wrapped airtight, it should keep for at least a day before baking. There's no need to bring it back to room temperature. Just take it directly from the refrigerator to the oven. Note 2: Gruyere or Emmenthal cheese is the traditional choice. If you choose something else, be sure to use a type of cheese that melts well. Source: Fanny Cradock via Keep Calm and Fanny On

When last we made Fanny Cradock's gougère, we learned that "gougère" is a fancy word for cheesy bread. We speculated that although "the classic preparation" (as the purest of purists say) uses gruyere or emmenthal cheese, this would be absolutely delicious with cheddar cheese. 

The name "gougère" may sound French and fancy, but-- and I say this in the most loving way possible-- it tastes like it should come in a cardboard box from the nearest cheap pizza place where the owner often works the cash register.

I thought cupcake-sized cheese poufs would be as cute as they are delicious. And look at that beautiful orange-golden color on top!

Despite my excessive use of cooking spray, our cheddar puffs stuck to the pan. Maybe I should have brushed the pan with melted shortening instead. I had to get out a knife and cut them free. Unfortunately, these things are as fragile as they are airy. They really don't stand up to being manhandled as you try to gouge them out of a pan. Despite my best efforts, they all came out of the pan looking a bit stomped on.

This was my punishment for contravening Fanny Cradock's directions. She put her gougère in one big pan, and it didn't stick. I used a different pan than Fanny Cradock did, and paid for my disobedience with welded-on cheesy bread.

I think I know why the cheesy poufs stuck to the pan. It seems the tops of these rose so fast that the egg wash hadn't set. Instead, the egg dripped down the rising cupcake domes. It then slid between the dough and the pan, and welded the two together. So if you're going to do individual gougères, we recommend omitting the egg wash. Otherwise, you'll have to soak your cupcake pan overnight because it looks like this:

Moving back to the food, none of the cheese poufs came out of the pan intact. This one came the closest.

De-panning problems aside, cheddar cheese gougères are absolutely delicious. If you like the cheese breadsticks from the nearest not-at-all-Italian pizza place, you will love these. We will be revisiting this again when the weather gets cold (or when I feel the house's air conditioning has had it too easy), this time with provolone, and a lot of garlic. But seriously, if you don't mind a really hot oven, you owe it to yourself to try the cheddar poufs.