Here’s all that’s left after the gougère bender I went on this afternoon. Let’s just hope I can whip out another 40 before company comes. Ah yes, I seem to have a cup of flour left here, I’ll sift that… …then grate up that last 2-3 ounces morsel of Gruyère that’s in the fridge. Then […]
READ ONI confess I’ve been avoiding that, since gougère history is extremely difficult to trace. The thing we know as the gougère, a small blob of choux paste flavored with cheese, isn’t very old. Invented in France, it’s been a staple of wine tastings for something on the order of 100 years. However its primary component, […]
READ ONThat fantastic question from reader Frans. Fantastic because that word gets thrown around all the time when people talk about food science, but no one usually bothers to explain it. To be wholly accurate, starch doesn’t really “gelatinize” (it technically takes protein to make gelatin), it gelates, though the effect is largely the same. Which […]
READ ONThis is a mostly simple procedure, the sole trick of which is making sure you cook the batter long enough (three minutes should suffice). Though it seems like overkill to me, you can fill a gougère by inserting a small amount of cooked meat, sausage or cooked mushrooms into the center. In that case, it’s […]
READ ONWhy, nothing more or less than a little blob of pâte à chou flavored with gruyère cheese and chile powder. They’re small, about the size of cream puffs (which are, not coincidentally, made from the same type of pastry) and are one of the world’s all-time great wine accompaniments. Though they’re rich they’re quite light, […]
READ ONThe arrival of these little cheese puffs at the top of the request list is a very auspicious sign for the new year. It means I finally might make good on a New Year’s resolution that I’ve made the last three years running: to do more savory baking. Something else that’s very cool about gougères […]
READ ONThis is one of those tasks most people assume they already know how to perform. However after receiving some emails about slipping and/or sliding glazes during Sacher torte week, I think a tutorial on this subject is warranted. For as with most things there’s a right way to cut a cake and a wrong way. […]
READ ONI promise. These questions came in recently from reader Joseph H.: – I saw no mention of raspberry jam. I keep hearing that you can use raspberry or apricot. Personally, I prefer apricot, and was glad to see it prominently featured in your posts. What gives with raspberry? – The recipe that I was given […]
READ ONAnd now if I might speak out of the other side of my mouth for a moment, I’d like to devote a little time to a book that several readers have asked me to comment on, but which I only just received for Christmas: Rose Levy Berenbaum’s Rose’s Heavenly Cakes. Rose Levy Beranbaum worshipper that […]
READ ONReader Herman S. weighs in from Belgium: Could it be that the dryness problem is also a cultural issue? Indeed the advent of American coca cola started a proces by which European drinkers, or at least the Belgian ones, want sweeter beers. And thus, more and more old Belgian beers are now ‘restyled’ and become […]
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