I decided I wanted to make some sort of roll that I could put in the freezer and take out when the mood struck. I of course decided on fancy rolls--gougeres. The lovely French version of a cheese puff (with traditional gruyere of course). I had made them before with success, but the second time I tried to make them (for a friend's Thanksgiving meal, no less) they failed. I think they failed the second time because I didn't let the choux paste come together properly because I was in a hurry. The photo below shows proper choux paste.
In all honesty the hardest part of making gougeres is getting the dough in the pastry bag. There are only eight ingredients in the Tartine cookbook recipe I used: milk, butter, salt, flour, eggs, gruyere cheese, black pepper, and fresh thyme (which is optional in most recipes). The second hardest part of making gougeres is piping the dough on a cookie sheet. I didn't even do a great job of piping, but they still came out great. And it never fails that I fill the pastry bag too full and the dough comes out both ends of the pastry bag. Since filling the bag is the hardest part I tend to overfill. Will I ever learn my lesson? Probably not.
Besides eating about five of these when they came out of the oven, I have another couple dozen packed away in the freezer. To freeze them you simply pipe them on a cookie sheet, put the cookie sheet in the freezer, and then pack the gougeres up when they're frozen. Tartine says they'll remain fresh for about a month. I'm not sure we'll make it a month before they're all eaten.
