Easy Peasy Gougères
The perfect thing to pair with cold champagne — plus, a giveaway of Jessie Sheehan's latest book
I hope you all had a lovely Christmas, whether you were celebrating or enjoying a day off from celebrating. I also hope you’re off this week, with some time for a fun and simple recipe.
We are making a left turn from cookies to salty, cheesy, herby, crispy things with Jessie Sheehan’s new book, Salty, Cheesy, Herby, Crispy Snackable Bakes. And guess what? We’re giving away a copy!
To enter to win, just tell me why you need this book in the comments. A few housekeeping notes: today’s giveaway is only open to paid subscribers. I’ll choose a winner at random at 10 a.m. EST on Monday, December 30, so leave your comment below anytime between now and then. I will reply to the winner’s comment to let them know they’ve won. See the bottom of this post for the giveaway fine print1 and click the button below to leave your note.
But first, a recipe from Jessie’s new book! Leave it to me to pick the most classic one. Some things are so good, there is no need to mess with them. In case you are not familiar with gougères, aka cheese puffs, they are truly one of the easiest things you can whip up in your kitchen, usually with everything you’ve got on hand. I usually keep Gruyère in the house, but you can also use any hard cheese you happen to have, or even the odds and ends you might find in your cheese drawer.
Not only are they easy (which is a prerequisite for inclusion in any book of Jessie Sheehan’s), they are THE perfect thing to go with a glass of chilled champagne (or any other libation for that matter), making them de rigueur for any New Year’s Eve gathering. Even if you’re home alone watching the ball drop or just going to bed early, make these and you’ll feel like you’re at a party!
Now that we’re settled into our rental house, I am having guests on New Year’s Eve (which is my favorite way to celebrate, since I mostly hate going out on NYE), and I have just stashed these in my freezer. I’ll pull them out and reheat them to eat with the first drinks of the evening. That’s not as good as serving them warm the first time they come out of the oven, but I doubt anyone will complain. I have also successfully frozen balls of unbaked gougère dough in the freezer which works out even better. Your guests will think you’re some kind of sorcerer if you do that. And the house will smell amazing.
Jessie’s instructions don’t require the use of any machinery (such as a stand mixer or food processor), just good ol’ elbow grease, which you do need when beating in the eggs. I confess, because my stand mixer was just sitting there in front of me, I opted to use it, but either way works perfectly fine. I loved Jessie’s suggestion to use an ice cream scoop to portion out the dough, which is much easier than piping it or using two spoons, but again, any of these methods work fine.
If you're having overnight guests this holiday, whip up a batch of Jessie's Coconut Hazelnut Granola with Olive Oil and Sesame Seeds for breakfast. You won’t be sorry!
In any case, I hope you'll make and enjoy the gougères for the big night, but either way, I wish you and yours a lovely new year. As always, thank you for being here. It means a lot!
More from Jessie!
If you like super-simple and delicious recipes, consider following Jessie’s newsletter, or buying her new book. Like I’ve said before, Jessie designs recipes to be as easy as humanly possible—with plenty of yummy payoff.
If you’re curious about what kind of recipes you’ll find in Salty, Cheesy, Herby, Crispy Snackable Bakes, here’s a peek at the TOC. I firmly believe that snacks and dips can be the main event, and it seems that Jessie agrees. Snacks for the win!
If you don’t have a full-access subscription to this newsletter but you’d like to win a copy of Jessie’s book, you can always upgrade and then leave a comment to enter the giveaway. Either way, thanks so much for reading and supporting Susanality!
