(these gougères were the very first batch I made back in 2010. I’ve been hooked ever since!)
If you read this blog with any regularity you might know that choux pastry is one of my absolute favourite things! So it’s natural that there would be a few choux recipes in the cookbook I am working on! This term the Petits Chefs are testing some of the recipes for my book and though a group of boys made gougères last term for a visiting inspection committee, I knew I wanted to test the recipe again and have the boys help me write clear (for kids too!) directions.
With a full crew of boys this term, some of the recipes won’t be as easy to simply give and observe them following the directions and this is one of them (for timing reasons – I know 60 minutes is pretty short to make gougères with beginners from start to finish). Instead, I had them in groups and I read the instructions out and had them follow them to the letter, making note of the things that were not clear…
We started off learning (or getting a refresher for some boys) how to measure liquids. The boys made sure they were at eye-level to the measuring jug…
We fluffed and scooped our flour…
And used a long knife to sweep it off to make it level:
We learned why it’s important to keep on stirring when you’re cooking off flour with milk and butter…
And made beautiful choux pastry:
(note the slight crust in the bottom of the pan? The boys were excited to hear that it’s supposed to be there!)
We cooled off the choux pastry a little bit…
Before we added the eggs:
And kept on stirring even when the mixture looked wrong!
(the recipe actually says it might look like you’ve made a big mistake but tells you to keep on going and eventually the pastry will come together!)
We added the carefully grated and carefully measured cheese:
Et voilà!
This part of the recipe was a little challenging to write but with the boys’ input, I think I’ve managed to word it so it’s easy to understand (thanks guys!).
25 minutes later…. (during which time we cleaned up and ran quickly through the recipe)…
Not the best picture but wow – beautiful puffy cheesy gougères! Proud of these boys!
Stay tuned to see what recipes we test from In the French kitchen with kids next week!
Loved the post… there seems to be very little that the LPCs can’t do when they put their minds to it. Well done boys…
Well, having a well-written recipe definitely helps and I’m so lucky they are helping me with this!