Gougère

Gougère
Choux pastry
Gruyère cheese gougères
Place of origin:
France
Main ingredient(s):
Choux pastry, cheese (usually Gruyère, Comté, or Emmental)
Recipes at Wikibooks:
Gougère
Media at Wikimedia Commons:
Gougère

A gougère (pronounced: [ɡuʒɛʁ]), in French cuisine, is a baked savory choux pastry made of choux dough mixed with cheese. There are many variants. The cheese is commonly grated Gruyère, Comté, or Emmentaler,^[1][2] but there are many variants using other cheeses or other ingredients.

Inside a gougère

Gougères can be made as small pastries, 3–4 cm. in diameter; aperitif gougères; 10–12 cm.; individual gougères; or in a ring. Sometimes they are filled with ingredients such as mushrooms, beef, or ham; in this case the gougère is usually made using a ring or pie tin.

In Burgundy, they are generally served cold when tasting wine in cellars, but are also served warm as an appetizer.

History

In the eighteenth and nineteenth-century, gougères were sometimes made of choux pastry, but sometimes apparently just of cheese, eggs, and breadcrumbs.^[4] The presentation was usually a flat circle, neither a sphere nor a ring.^[5][6]

Earlier forms of gougère were more a stew than a pastry, including herbs, bacon, eggs, cheese, spices, and meat mixed with an animal's blood, and prepared in a sheep's stomach. In medieval France, it was a kind of cheese tart or pie. Later, it was unknown outside what is now Belgium, where it became associated with Palm Sunday.^[7] But it was also attested in Auxerre (Burgundy) in the 19th century under the name gouere.^[8]

Name

The word gougère was formerly spelled gouiere, gouyere,^[9] goïère, goyère, or gouyère.^[4] The modern spelling appears to date from the 18th century.^[9]

The ultimate origin of the word is unknown.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gougère.

• Pão de queijo

References