Today I bring you a perfect appetizer for a special meal. It is a small delicacy with a cheese heart that Àngels Pallàs prepared at We Love Cooking as an appetizer for a Christmas meal that we will publish this week.
Although it may seem like a complicated recipe, it is very easy to make. There are only two delicate parts: the second egg and the baking.
Ingredients
- 70cc of white wine
- 70cc of water
- 70gr of butter
- 75gr of flour
- Salt
- 2 eggs and 1 yolk to paint
- 90g of various cheeses (Àngels used Gruyere, Cheddar and Roquefort in equal parts, but we can use any cheese such as Emmenthal or Manchego)
- 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
To decorate:
- Spreadable cheese (Philadelphia type)
- A splash of cream Blueberry jam
- Some parsley leaves
Preparation
- Put the water, wine and butter cut into small pieces in a saucepan . Bring to the boil for 3 or 4 minutes and then add all the flour at once and stir until you get a dry dough.
- We remove this dough into a container and let it cool a little.
- Add an egg to the dough and mix well with a spatula until well mixed (it takes a little effort but it ends up integrating into the dough).
- Add the cheese cut into small cubes and mix well so that it melts into the mixture. Add the second egg, but be very careful (this can ruin the mixture). It is a matter of adding the second egg in very small quantities, as we do not want the mixture to be thick. The mixture has enough egg when we lift it up a little with the spatula and it falls down like melted cheese, without breaking at any point. At that point we stop adding egg, the mixture is finished. If we add too much of this second egg, we can start the recipe again, but the “spoiled” mixture will be useful for making delicious cheese fritters.
- Using a spoon, put the dough into a pastry bag (plastic ones that you can cut to your liking work very well) and make the gougeres on a baking tray. With the bag in a vertical position, make a chickpea and then circle it and move upwards. It is important to make the base (the chickpea) first, because if you make a circle upwards, the base will be empty and the dough will sink in the oven.
- We paint the gougeres with the yolk and sprinkle the grated parmesan on top.
- Place the gougeres in the oven preheated to 160º. After 25 minutes, turn off the oven and leave the gougeres inside with the door slightly open (you can put a kitchen towel in it) for 10 more minutes.
- We take them out of the tray and let them cool on a rack (the same one we use to make cookies).
- To decorate the gougeres we can add a walnut of Philadelphia-type spreadable cheese diluted with a dash of cream, blueberry jam and a piece of parsley.
