French Night

I've started themed nights. My first night was Moroccan night. And a few weeks ago I had french night. I made Gruyere Gougeres (pictured), essentially french cheese puffs, tomato soup, which you think would be slightly healthy, but the recipe calls for a stick of butter and 4 Cups of heavy cream, holy shit! And for the main course Cassoulet.

After being stuck in the kitchen all day I am so happy that everything turned out delicious! I cut a lot of the fat out of the recipes because I wouldn't have been able to eat as much.

I love to cook but baking freaks me out. These Gougeres are so easy to make. They are the same dough as eclairs.

Taken from Essentials of French Cooking

1/3 c unsalted butter

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper

pinch of cayenne pepper

1 c all purpose flour

5 large eggs

1 1/2 c Gruyere cheese

Preheat oven to 425. Line two sheet with parchment paper. In a saucepan over medium high heat combine butter, salt, white pepper, cayenne, and 1 c water and bring to a boil. Cook, stirring until butter melts 3-4 minutes. Add flour and mix vigorously until a thick paste forms and pulls away from sides of pan, about three minutes. Remove from heat. Break one egg into pan and using spoon or electric mixer beat into batter until combined. Repeat with three more eggs. Whisk in 1 c cheese.

Dip teaspoon into cold water, scoop generous teaspoon of batter, and push onto prepared baking sheet with fingertip. Repeat placing Gougeres 2 inches apart and dipping spoon in cold water each time to prevent batter from sticking (this did not work so well with me). Lightly beat remaining egg. Brush tops of Gougeres with said egg, and sprinkle with remaining cheese.

Bake for ten minutes than reduce heat to 350. Bake until golden brown, 15 minutes longer. Turn oven off and leave for ten more minutes.