French Fridays With Dorie #1: Gougeres

For the past year or so I have been following the baking bloggers of Tuesdays with Dorie, and drooling over every recipe. The few recipes that I have tried from Dorie's book Baking: From My Home to Yours, have been fabulous. When I saw that a new group was created to cook and bake through Around My French Table, I was very intrigued! I considered joining, but thought 'I don't cook French food' and dismissed the idea. But then, I pondered it some more and thought 'Why don't I cook French food?' I am very excited for this group because it will get me to cook and bake recipes that I normally would not. My copy of Around My French Table is in the mail as I type, as is Baking: From My Home to Yours. I am super excited about both of them, I love reading cookbooks, especially when they have photographs! Luckily, the recipes for the month of October were supplied on the FFWD website, for situations like mine. How thoughtful =) Dorie chose Gougeres for our first recipe, a beautiful choice in my opinion! I love that they don't need any strange ingredients or a huge list of spices; just simple, easily available, lovely ingredients. I whipped up a quarter of the recipe on Thursday afternoon in the dorm kitchen. And I must admit, I was feeling pretty smug when I pulled out a tray of golden, firm and puffy cheese puffs from the oven. Of course, I did wonder why they were done so soon but still, I was feeling pretty proud of myself. That is, until a few minutes later I realized that I had forgotten to turn the oven down when I put the tray in the oven! And the instructions were right beside me! Ooops! I was pleasantly surprised at how much they puffed up while baking, and I would like to try mini ones next time. Next week is a mustard tart... I'm sure I won't feel quite so smug about my abilities when that comes around! I popped four of these one after the other, they are that good. I definitely prefer them warm, but then, that's my opinion on most all baked goods! So go to your kitchen and whip up some of these awesome gougeres (note to self: find out how to pronounce gougeres!) and you can feel proud of your cooking skills too!