Recipe: Gougeres au Cumin (Cumin Cheese Puffs) (French)

GOUGERES AU CUMIN (CUMIN CHEESE PUFFS)

"The classic version calls for cheese as the only flavoring, but I like to use cumin in mine: this complements the fruitiness of the cheese remarkably well and adds a welcome piquancy. Serve with an ap rtif drink, or use the same batter to make large goug res (about 3 inches in diameter) and serve as a first course, with a salad."

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, diced
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 cup flour, sifted
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon whole cumin seeds or 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 1/2 cups freshly grated Comt or Gruy re, about 5 ounces (substitute a good Swiss cheese)

1. Measure all the ingredients before you start. Combine the butter, salt, and 1 cup water in a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium-low heat. Remove from heat, add the flour all at once, and stir quickly with a wooden spoon unitl well blended. Return the pan to medium-low heat and keep stirring until the mixture forms a ball and pulls away from the sides of the pan.

2. Let cool for 3 minutes. Add the eggs one by one, stirring well between each addition, until incorporated. (What you have just made is a p te choux.) Sprinkle with cumin and pepper and fold in the cheese. The batter will be thick. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes, or up to a day.

3. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Remove the batter from the fridge, and use two teaspoons to shape small balls of batter (about 1 inch in diameter) that you will plop onto the baking sheet, leaving an inch of space between each. If you have to work in batches, cover the batter and return it to the fridge.

4. Bake for 20 minutes, until puffy and golden - however much you want to peek inside, do not open the oven door during the first 10 minutes of baking, or the goug res will not rise well. Turn off the oven, open the door just a crack, and leave the goug res in for another 5 minutes. (This helps prevent an abrupt temperature change, which would cause the goug res to deflate and nobody wants that.) Transfer to a cooling rack for 5 minutes and serve warm, or let cool and serve at room temperature.

TO FREEZE AHEAD:
You can freeze the goug res for up to a month and reheat them (no thawing necessary) in a 350 degrees F oven for 8 minutes. They won't be as moist as freshly baked ones, but they are very convenient to have on hand for unexpected guests.

VARIATIONS:
Replace the cumin with caraway seeds, rosemary, or paprika, or omit the spices altogether.

Makes about 40 goug res
Excerpted from Chocolate and Zucchini: Daily Adventures in a Parisian Kitchen by Clotilde Dusoulier
Copyright 2007 by Clotilde Dusoulier. Excerpted by permission of Broadway, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.