gougeres : wishfulthinking

oi wish i have a lovely, rustic wooden table and beautiful white plates.. for plating my food... waiting to be photographed...


i wish i have a super duper camera that can capture my food and make it look delicious and makes people salivates~

i wish i have a big oven so i can bake cakes, pastries, biscuits and stuff so that i can feed the people i love...

i wish i have kitchen utensils that they have in Masterchef kitchen to ease my cooking experience..

i wish i can go to cooking classes... taught by the professional chefs... and learn all the techniques i watched in all those cooking shows...

i wish i have the talent to garnish all the delicacies i made...

by the way, i made some gougeres...  i was intrigued by Derrick Prince, one of the Masterchef US season 2 participants. he served gougeres that wowed Ramsey~!! so i googled up and found David Lebovitz's recipe for gougeres and i found that it is so easy to make... basically it's a choux pastry (same as puff pastry and eclairs dough) but instead of sweet, it is savoury... . the recipe calls for Gruyere cheese, but i don't have that in my pantry (we only stocked up on cheddar, sliced cheese and phildelphia cream cheese) and also chives, so i tweaked up the recipe a bit.. i made a batch this morning...

Cheddar Cheese Gougeres

1/4 cup lowfat milk
1/4 cup water
3 tbsp salted butter
pinch of salt
1 tsp ground blackpepper
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp dried mixed herb
1/2 tsp parsley flakes
2/3 cup grated cheddar cheese
2 eggs

method:
preheat the oven 220 degree celcius

1. mix milk, water, butter, salt and black pepper.. put on medium heat and stir until the butter melted
2. once the butter melt, dump all the flour and stir using wooden spoon quickly until it became a lumpy dough (it will not stick to the pan surface)
3. take it out and let it cool for a few minutes.
4. using a hand mixer, add egg one by one until it became smooth.. add the grated cheese and mxed herbs and parsley flakes..
5. scrape the dough into a piping bag. if u have no piping bag.. take a freezer bag,, cut at one corner and pipe on 
a baking sheet lined with parchment paper (i used a Silpat/ silicone pad).. make sure u leave even space between each piped dough.
7. sprinkle some grated cheddar on each dough and bake fo 10 minutes in 220 deg Celcius and lower the temperature to 190 deg Celcius for further 10 minutes until golden brown..
8. serve warm~


this gougeres puffed perfectly with hollow centre and tastes heavenly with lightly cheesy perfumed... crispy exterior which i think very delicious and keep me asking for more~ perfect companion for tomato soup.. i posted up this bitten little puff to show you the hollowy centre (compare it to my finger, this is a mini mini ones~ r


you can serve this up with soups, salads or any gravy, make it bigger and you can fill the hollow centre with tuna, chicken or any fillings you desire ... 

i forgot which episode i saw Derrick Prince whipped some of these , but i found Masterchef Second Course video featuring him making this gorgeous gougeres with poached egg and sauce~






wishfulthinkingisgreat