Jane Hughes recently joined VfL as our new roving chef. Jane is a qualified and experienced vegetarian cookery tutor and has published several vegetarian and vegan cookbooks. Her latest, The Vegetarian Year, came out this year in the UK and USA.
Cheese Gougeres
Choux pastry is most commonly used to create sweet treats like profiteroles, but is easy to use in savoury dishes too. Add a chunky vegetable sauce to create an inexpensive but impressive meal, or serve cold and pipe a savoury cream filling into them.
Serves 4
Vegetarian
Ingredients
115g Cheddar cheese
115g salted butter
140g plain flour
4 medium eggs
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 220°C.
Grate the cheese. Put the butter into a pan with 250ml of water. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to low and add the flour in a single batch. Stir rapidly and continuously with a wooden spoon as the mixture comes together. Cook for up to 3 minutes, until the mixture forms a smooth ball. Take the pan off the heat and allow it to cool for a few minutes.
Beat the eggs. Add them to the warm dough one at a time, beating thoroughly to incorporate. Finally, mix in the grated cheese. Put small spoonsful of the mixture onto a baking tray lined with baking parchment, leaving room between each spoonful for the pastry to puff up. Bake for 10 minutes, turn the heat down to 180°C and cook for a further 15 minutes, until the pastries are cooked through and golden.
