I have very little experience cooking or baking french foods, and I'm excited to cooking through Around My French Table (AMFT), which will undoubtedly broaden my palate and skills in the kitchen.
Dorie Greenspan herself chose the first round of recipes for the month of October. These gougeres were her first pick, and coincidentally the first recipe in the book. In my opinion, these are a perfect start to any french meal. I'm glad she included a tip about freezing the dough for future use - now I have a bevy of these babies in the freezer to serve with my future french recipes out of AFMT (Thanks Dorie!)!
Dorie wrote that she uses gruyere while in France, and cheddar while here in America. I never turn down the chance to cook with (thus eat) gruyere - I love the stuff - so I chose to make these perfect little puffed up cheese pastries with gruyere. Wait, are they pastries?? Well, they certainly are not breads - right? We'll call them pastries. I served them alongside two other October selections for dinner this past weekend, Hachis Parmentier, and Marie-Helene's Apple Cake, which made for a memorable meal - the best I've made in a while. Keep your eyes open for these posts soon - I'm dying to tell you about the Hachis Parmentier. Amazing.
Get your self over to amazon and order your copy of Around My French Table to join us in baking!
And check out the gorgeous new site for French Fridays with Dorie to get all the details!
That is great that you did 3 of the recipes at the same time. The three complemented each othere well! :)
ReplyDeleteI'd wanted to do the same as you - gougeres, Hachis Parmentier and the apple cake, but it didn't work out. Need to plan better, I guess! Your gougeres are gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteGlad to read that you liked the Hachis P. My son told me a couple of months ago that he liked Shepard's Pie (which I've never made) so now I plan to make this for him when he comes home from college for a visit next week!
ReplyDeleteI like your blog & see you around FFWD! (luciacara on FFWD)
Isn't it fun? I can't wait to make the apple cake. It looks SO good.
ReplyDeleteWoW! You rock! Love your gougeres; crispy golden perfection. I am anxious to bake the apple bundt cake myself =).
ReplyDeleteGreat idea to use several October recipes for one fantastic meal!
ReplyDeleteOui, your gougeres look perfect! I just took my apple cake out of the oven. Can't wait to taste it. I do believe Dorie's done it again :)
ReplyDeleteI think I'm also apprehensive about some of these recipes too - but it's nice to do it as a group effort. Gougeres are beautiful! Hm... a whole meal from October - genius!
ReplyDeletemike
FFwD blog
web.me.com/mikejdunlap
Kate (and/or anyone else!:)), I have a question about the Hachis Parmentier...what kind of sausage did you use? The recipe says sweet or spicy and the seasonings are pretty basic for the rest of the recipe so what kind of sausage would be good? I make Italian sausages & peppers on a very regular basis so I'd like to use something other than Italians but I am not good at figuring out flavors (which is why I like RECIPES! :).
ReplyDeleteAny advice/suggestions? Thanks!!
luciacara -
ReplyDeleteI used a spicy italian - kind of crazy in a french dish, right? - but it was either that, sweet italian, or hot turkey sausage. That is all my local grocer had for raw sausage. It was great with the hot italian, though.
Thanks, Kate! I know I can get good Italian sausages here - and my family likes them so that will be easy! I will be making this this weekend or next. Thanks again
ReplyDeleteWow, you made 3 recipes at one go, amazing! Can't wait to read about your Hachis Parmentier too. :)
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