Cheese Puffs (Gougère au Gruyere)

"We need to push ourselves to make as many reductions as possible in our own energy use first.. and that takes time. But we must do this quickly.. the climate will not wait for us. - Rupert Murdoch"

When we woke up this morning, my daughter and I were dazzled at a beautiful scenery that greeted us. An imaculate white snow blankets our entire garden and all around our area. I tell you this thing happens rarely in Provence. The old granny who lives next door swear that the last time she saw this kind of snow in region was about fifty years ago. All the kids in the neihborhood were glad to play outside to enjoy this rare moment. It's not that I'm being an "Auntie Scrooge" while everyone else are having fun but I can't help and wonder what more alarming global changes is in store for us. Will it snow in Africa in the future or how about if all the ice in the north pole melts? Are we really prepared for this?

I still remember back then when I was still learning French, the very first essay I wrote was how we human beings could turn like Dinosaurs in the near future if we won't take drastic measures in protecting our environment. Already much has been said about "global warning", massive campaigns all over the world has been donen it about time we take those words into real action.


I am sending some of these cheese puffs over at Maninas at Food Matters, this weeks host of Weekend Herb Blogging. This is one of my favorite weekly blogging event were you can enjoy an array of delectable herb dishes and desserts. This even was created by Kalyn but is now in the caring hands of Haalo of Cook Almost Anything.

Gougere are French cheese puffs that are very easy to make and yet delicious. They are perfect entrée that you can serve with some salad. This is the basic recipe that you can modify to add up your favorite cheeses like goat cheese, mozzarella and others.


Basic Gougere Recipe
for about 30 pieces

125 ml of water
40 g of butter
1 teaspoon of salt
70 g of flour
2 large eggs
100 g of gruyere cheese grated
some herbs and chopped chives

Preheat the oven at 220° celsius. In a casserole put your water, salt and butter. Let it melt but not boiling the water. Wait until there's little bubble in the water. Cut the fire. Add the flour gently. Mix well. Put it back on a low fire to dry up the mixture. You just need to see that the mixture doesn't stick to the casserole anymore. Out of fire, add your eggs one by one. Continue mixing. If it's too wet you can put it back in fire to dry it up a little. Once the mixture is ready put your grated cheese, chives and thyme. Scrape the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a wide plain tip and pipe the dough making each about the size of a small cherry tomato. Bake for ten minutes. Then lower the temperature at 190° celsius and bake for another twenty minutes.

Country Bread

"Bread is the king of the table all else is merely the court that surrounds the king" -Bromfield

When I was in high-school Economics was my least favorite subject. Well how could we expect young minds to see the importance of this matter in our daily lives when our number one concern was getting the attention of our crushes and getting rid of our pimples? But that was long time ago. Today, every time I open newspapers and watch the news on TV I am guilty as the rest of the French people who see nothing but concern on our diminishing purchasing power. And when this topic is on the line the swelling prices of bread naturally comes.

The French people and bread have traveled faithfully together in their history. Bread accounted for more than a staple food but symbolized hope, justice and stability, a food for poor people par excellence. Imagine that it was only in 1793 that bread comes to be for everyone, rich or poor, the bread of equality. So what happens when baguette, croissants, baguette à l’anciènne and other bread becomes costly? Well they don’t go on the street to do their protest but rather spend more time in the kitchen to bake their own bread.

I’ll be sending this to Susan for her weekly Yeastspotting. And by the way Click’s theme for this month is all about crust. I had the pleasure to be invited as a one of the judges in this fabulous food photo event. I can’t wait to see your crunchy crusts pour over at Jugalbandi the creator of this event.

Country Bread (Pain de Campagne)
for 800 grams of bread

20 g of dry yeast (about 2 teaspoons)
320 g of luke warm water
600 g of bread flour
10 g of sugar (about 1 teaspoon)
10 g of salt (about 1 teaspoon)


In a separate bowl dissolve the dry yeast with some of your warm water. Let this stand for about fifteen minutes. In another bowl put the flour, salt and sugar. Add your diluted yeast and start working on your dough. Add little by little the water. Do not pour all the water as consistency of dough varies from flour to flour. Continue working on your dough until it becomes smooth. Let it stand for an hour covered by a wet towel. As soon as the dough have risen you will need to do the second part of the kneading. Put some oil on your hand flatten the dough to let the air out. Start kneading again for few minutes. Do as you please for the size and shape of your bread. I cut mine in small equal parts and make a small ball shape. I let it stand for another hour covered with wet towel. Preheat the oven at 200° celsius. Put a ramekin with water inside as you bake your bread. With the aid of a sharp knife make small lits on top of your bread. I diddn't put some slits on my bread. Bake it for 20-30 minutes depending on the size of your bread.

My other bread recipes:

French Baguette
Croissants
Mini-flute Bread