Gougeres

This article was originally published on Seriously Good Dec. 23, 2007.

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. If you're at all like me, you've spent the past month obsessing about Christmas dinner.

Gifts? Piff, there's an Internet.

Family coming? It's family! What are they going do if the sheets aren't pressed - disinherit you? Traveling? Only a problem in terms of what to cook and how to get it there.

If it weren't for the food, Christmas would be stress-free. But we don't have that many feast days in this country. Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the 4th of July are pretty much it. Easter to a lesser degree. I personally make a big deal of the first meal of the New Year, but I seem to be alone in that effort even though it makes far more sense than getting drunk on New Year's Eve.

Nevertheless, despite obsessing over Christmas dinner (we eat ours Christmas Eve)

and Christmas brunch (which is our Christmas Day eating tradition) for the past month, I still haven't completely settled on one element for the brunch. It's a minor detail and I may just skip it, but in the event you too have a missing element, and the element you're missing just happens to be an hors d'oeuvre, I have a suggestion: gougères.

All you need is butter, eggs, flour, and a good melting cheese. They keep for a day or so in the refrigerator and can then be reheated in the oven, so you could make these this afternoon or evening and have them tomorrow or Monday. Here's what I'm making for tomorrow evening. I adapted this recipe from one by Thomas Keller in The French Laundry Cookbook.

The prosciutto was my idea and really kicks these to a new level of savory goodness. Fontal, manchego, or even cheddar would be excellent. (The meat isn't traditional, but I saw a recipe for bacon and cheddar gougeres somewhere this past year.) When I served this recipe to my friends at the Cooks Bash in Houston last month they weren't eaten -- they were inhaled with a single collective intake of breath.

Prosciutto Gougères
Makes about 24

6 slices prosciutto
1 c water
7 tbsp unsalted butter
2 tsp kosher salt
Pinch of sugar
Freshly ground white pepper to taste
1 1/4 c all-purpose flour
4 - 5 ea large eggs
5 oz Gruyère - grated

Heat the oven to 450F.

Slightly cook prosciutto in a skillet over medium heat - about 10 seconds per side. Then coarsely chop by hand, you should have about 1/3 cup lightly packed.

In a medium saucepan, combine the water, butter, salt, pepper, and sugar and bring to a boil. Add all the flour at once, reduce the heat to medium, and stir for 2 minutes, or until the mixture forms a ball and the excess moisture has evaporated (if the ball forms more quickly, continue to cook and stir for a full 2 minutes).

Transfer the mixture to the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle and beat for about 30 seconds at medium speed to cool slightly. Add 4 eggs and continue to mix until completely combined and the batter has a smooth, silky texture. Stop the machine and lift up the beater to check the consistency of the batter. The batter in the mixing bowl should form a peak with a tip that falls over. If it is too stiff, beat in the white of the remaining egg. Check again and, if necessary, add the yolk. Finally, mix in 3/4 cup of the Gruyère and chopped prosciutto.

Line a pair of baking sheets with parchment paper. Fill a one-gallon heavy plastic bag with the gougère batter and snip off a bottom corner. Pipe the batter into 1-tablespoon mounds on the baking sheets, leaving about 2 inches between the gougères. Sprinkle the top of each gougère with about 1/2 teaspoon of the remaining grated cheese and bake for 7 to 8 minutes (my oven needs 10 minutes), or until they puff and hold their shape. Reduce the heat to 350 degrees F. and bake for an additional 20 to 25 minutes. When the gougères are done, they should be a light golden brown color. (Note: Unless you have a convection oven, I recommend cooking these in two batches, if you have a convection oven you may be able to cook both sheets at once.)

Kevin Weeks is a Gather food correspondent (Paisano), personal chef, cooking teacher, and writer in Knoxville, Tennessee who spends too many hours on his feet, cooking. "Paisano" is a column focused on peasant dishes from around the world. To read more of Kevin's writings or connect to him click here. His blog,Seriously Good, is read by 75,000 cooks a month and in addition he writes a weekly column forSpot-On.