Saturday Adventure with Julia

I'm reading a book about a girl who gets the chance to move to France, work in a French bakery, and go to a French pastry school and it's really doing a number on my appetite.  She kept going to these little cafe's and having Cafe Creme's and eating Grougerè's.  What the heck is a Grougerè?!?   I asked Google.

After having satisfied my initial curiosity I consulted my good friend Julia on how I might go about making these Grougerès, but she didn't mention them anywhere in her Mastering the Art of French cooking.  Apparently the star of my book didn't learn her French culinary facts from Julia.  Thankfully I was armed with my Google research and knew that it was basically a cheese puff, think cream puff, but without cream filling and tasting of yummy cheese instead.  A puff with a crisp exterior, a soft airy center, and deceptively light.  Julia had several versions of this pastry that starts with a basic Pâte â Choux.

Pâte â Choux is one of those mystical things that is as simple as breathing but as complex as learning to regulate your breaths during a deep sea dive.  It's basically water, butter, flour, a pinch of salt, and eggs.  You start with a slow boil of water and butter until the butter melts.

The next step sounds so easy unless you don't spend any time at all in the gym.  You dump all the flour in at once and stir with a wooden spoon until the mixture comes together and pulls away from the pan.

Initially this is done off the heat with a return to heat at the end.  It is remarkably reminiscent of glue at this point.  After all, you've just got a blob of water and flour.  If you have a strong man in the house this would be the time to employ his biceps   I didn't have a man, I don't need no stinking man!  Whew, I do this 5 days a week and I'll give Linda Hamilton a run for her money.





                                                                                               
After phase one of your work out it's time to beat in the eggs.  One at a time is key and your choux should be warm throughout this entire phase so you can't walk away (to rest your arms) but it's got enough residual heat that you don't have to go all Flash Gordon on it.  Add one egg, off heat, beat it in, by hand, with a wooden spoon until it's fully incorporated.










Do this with each egg and keep in mind that they will take longer and longer to incorporate.






     At this point you would add your cheese if you are making cheese puffs.  If you are making sweet puffs a bit of sugar is added to the boiling water.  I added a half and half mixture of Swiss and Parmesan   I added slightly more than the cup Julia called for.  Yes, we ARE on a first name basis.

Add your mixture to a pastry bag.  Oh, you don't have a pastry bag, Mon Dieu! Oh wait, I don't either.  A sturdy zip top bag will do.  I like to put my bag inside a tall glass to make filling it easier.










After I had my bag filled I cut a pretty good sized hole in the corner of my bag because I wanted to make large puffs.  I think next time I'll make little bite sized puffs instead.

Squeeze a rounded dollop on a cookie sheet.  A 2 inch mound for large puffs and a 1 inch mound for small puffs. I didn't have parchment but I wish I did, if you have it, employ it.  I did struggle with getting the choux to detach nicely but a pair of scissors made that much easier.  I ran the blades under water first to prevent sticking.  You will have a little point at the top and you don't want this.  Take a beaten egg and use a pastry brush to both flatten this tip and coat each dollop.  I spaced my puffs about 3 inches apart as they were to double in size but most of that expansion is upward so I think I could have put them a bit closer together, not too much though.

This is where the precision of the French come in.  We are used to recipes that say bake it at this temperature for this long.  Not so, says Julia!  The puffs go into a 425 degree oven for 20 minutes at the top and bottom thirds of the oven (I had to rotate and turn my pans half way as my oven doesn't bake evenly), then knock it down to 375 degrees for 10 minutes, then slit the side and turn the oven off, prop open the door, and let them sit for 10 more minutes.

*note if you are making small puffs omit the step of lowering the oven temperature and cooking for 10 extra minutes and go straight from 425 to piercing with a knife (not a slit as they are smaller) the sides of the puff, turning off the oven, and propping door open.

I'm going to go ahead and admit to you right now that my oven and I aren't speaking today.  She really has no respect for the delicacies of French cooking.  When I find the patience to deal with her again she and I will have a long talk until we come to some kind of agreement on times and temperature.  Moral of the story, don't always trust the recipe.  Get to know your equipment and don't be afraid to experiment, if you don't get a perfect result the first time.

*additional note: My oven and I broke up.  I am now seeing a wonderful second hand but infinitely more agreeable oven.

You can eat these yummy morsels warm right from the pan and let the rest hang out on a cooling rack.  My insides were still a little wet so I made my slits a little bigger, basically cutting them through but leaving top attached to bottom, and put them back in the oven with it off and the door cracked over night.

I give myself a B- on these but I intend to practice with my finicky oven and with my choux paste a bit more with varying sizes and fillings.  I guess that means you have a Choux Part Deux post to look forward to.

The basic recipe is below but the formatting of Julia's recipes in Mastering the Art of French cooking is done in such a wonderful teaching style that I highly recommend picking it up.  You'll find hundreds of other valuable lessons therein.

For Cheese Puffs
Software:
1 cup water
3 Ounces (6 Tb or 3/4 stick) butter cut into pieces
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
Pinch of nutmeg
3/4 Cup All Purpose Flour
4 eggs
1 cup (4 ounces) grated Swiss, or Swiss and Parmesan, cheese
beaten egg

Hardware:
1 1/2 -Quart, heavy-bottomed saucepan
Wooden spoon or wooden spatula
pastry bag with round tip or zip top bag
pastry brush or paint brush
2 buttered baking sheets or baking sheets covered with parchment paper

Bring water to boil with the butter and seasonings (salt and pepper) and boil slowly until the butter has melted.  Meanwhile measure out the flour.

Remove from heat and immediately pour in all the flour at once.  Beat vigorously with a wooden spatula or spoon for several seconds to blend thoroughly.  then beat over moderately high heat for 1 to 2 minutes until mixture leaves the sides of the pan and spoon, forms a mass, and begins to film the bottom of the pan.

Remove saucepan from heat and make a well in the center of the paste with your spoon.  Immediately break an egg into the center of the well.  Beat it into the paste for several seconds until it has absorbed.  Continue with the rest of the eggs, beating them in one by one.  The third and fourth eggs will be absorbed more slowly,  Beat for a moment more to be sure all is well blended and smooth.

Beat the cheese into the warm pâte à choux.  Correct seasoning.  Squeeze into circular mounds 1 inch in diameter and 1/2 inch high. Space 2 inches apart on baking sheet, paint with beaten egg and flatten the top slightly.  Bake in upper and lower thirds of preheated 425 degree oven for about 20 minutes.  The puffs are done when they have doubled in size, are golden brown, and firm and crusty to the touch.  Remove from the oven and pierce the side of each puff with a sharp knife.  Then set in the turned off oven and leave the door ajoar for 10 minutes.  Cool puffs on rack.