Pancetta and Cheese Gougères by Rachel

Choux (pronouced "shoo") pastry can seem like a daunting thing to make (because it's all french and fancy), but it's actually really easy and if you've made it right once, you can make it right every time after that.  Choux pastry is what is used to make cream puffs and eclairs.  I had a hankering for the light and fluffy pastry, but I wanted a savory version, so I went for a smoky cheddar and pancetta version.  Hence, the gougère.

I think I might have overdone it with the cheese (though can one every really overdo it with cheese?), so they didn't puff as much as other times I've made them, but I made them to go with soup, so they turned out to be just the right consistency for me.

Ingredients
1/2 cup water
3 tbsp unsalted butter
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs (though you may not need all of the eggs)
3/4 cup smoked cheddar
1 tbsp chives diced
3 slices of pancetta, diced



- Preheat your oven to 425 degrees fahrenheit.

- In a sauce pan, add the butter and water and heat at low heat until the butter completely melts.  Give the mixture a quick stir to evenly distribute the butter into the water.

- Add the salt and flour in all at once and start to stir the mixture.  It will form a dough pretty quickly.

- Stir the dough around flattening it and turning it over with a spatula.  You are doing this to dry the dough out.  You don't want to cook it, so make sure that the temperature isn't too hot.  Once it starts to look waxy all throughout (probably about 3 minutes), remove it from the heat and transfer the dough into a new bowl at room temperature.  

- Let the dough sit for about 5 minutes to cool.

- Crack two eggs into a separate bowl and whisk them a little to break up the yolks.

- With a handheld or standing mixer, start the mixer on the dough ball.  This should help to release some of the heat that may have been trapped inside.  Add a little bit of the egg at a time.  I ended up not needing all of the egg.  I probably used about 1 3/4 of the eggs.  You want your batter to be goopy.  When you dip a spatula in it, it should stick and come up, but it should be thin enough that it will drip back into the bowl in gobs.

See?  Gobs.

- Add 3/4 of your cheese, the chives and the pancetta in with the batter and fold it in thoroughly.

- Prep a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Using about a tbsp of the batter, form it into a ball with two spoons.  Also, can you put it into a pastry bag and pipe them out.  You won't be able to hand-roll this batter- it's too sticky.  Give them room on the baking sheet as they will spread out and puff up.

- Top the little batter balls with the rest of the cheese.  Put them in the oven at 425 degrees for about 10 minutes.

Ready to bake!

- Lower the temperature to 375 degrees fahrenheit and let them cook for another 20-25 minutes.  Once they're a toasty brown and the cheese on top is crisp, they're done.

The gougères smell amazing.  As you can see, mine were weighed down a little with cheese (I used an entire cup of cheese), but I had no problems eating the entire batch.  It didn't affect the flavor, just the puffing of the pastry.  Enjoy them with your favorite soup or alone as an afternoon snack.