Burgundy: Gougère

Gougères are so  amazing!

No joke, I love these little treats. So much in fact that when I made them my friends and I ate all of them in one single evening. Yes, folks they are just that good!
Gougère are little cheese puffs that are a standard treat in the region a burgundy where they were created to be the perfect accompaniment to a fine class of wine from the Cote D'Or. Of course now they are a little more wide spread, including a bakery in down town Olympia, my kitchen and my belly!
These little warm puffs should be filled with the best Gruyère cheese (a regional cheese, similar to Swiss cheese but much more flavorful!) of course I was not about to spend the $20 it took to buy the correct amount of cheese so I went with a white cheddar cheese and Swiss cheese combo, it was good but the real thing is hard to beat.

Gougères are made up of a very strange dough that is heated on the stove and full of eggs, almost like a soufflé and quiche and cheese puff all in one... I did make the mistake of making the Gougères a bit too big and they did not have the light fluffy holey affect that one should get from a well-done Gougère but they were, as I said before, hard to keep my hands off of!

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups H2O
1 stick butter, cut into small cubes
1 1/2 cups flour
5 eggs
2 TBS Dijon mustard
salt and pepper to taste
nutmeg and cayenne
1 1/2 cups (total) finely diced Swiss cheese and white cheddar (if you want to spend more on cheese you can get Gruyere which is the classic cheese for these but the option is just as great!)
3 TBS milk
Parmesan cheese, enough for sprinkling on top of each Gougères about 1/3 of a cup, or more!


LETS BEGIN!

 

Because we are eating Burgundy at its best right now you need to account for some amazing mustard! 

 

step 1: melt butter with water

step 2: remove from heat and add flour mix until combined, put back on heat until the batter is thick and it begins to pull away from the pan

step 3: remove from heat and add 1 egg at a time mixing well after each addition

step 4: add mustard and spices

step 5: add cheese

step 6: make TBS sized lumps on a cookie sheet (with waxed paper or silpat)

step 7: Brush tops with milk and add grated Parmesan cheese over the tops

step 8: bake them until golden brown (15-20 minutes at 350 degrees)

step 9: EAT THEM!

Off to Burgundy.

Now we are off to Burgundy. The land of wine and food! Which also means that I have more cookbooks than I can count, however I picked just a few. There are all sorts of regional foods in Burgundy, not to mention wine, I am just hoping that i can find the ingredients i need to recreate these French classics!

My reading list is going to include:


The Food of France by Waverly Root
The Food of France by Sarah Woodward
Culinaria FRANCE edited by Andre Domine

and:

Recipes from Burgundy by Gerald Carpentier
Pedaling through Burgundy by Sarah Leah Chase

yummy food is to come so stay tuned!

Alsace and Lorraine: Pretzels

While I was making my beer I was dreaming of the pretzels I had eaten in Europe along side a large glass of frosty beer and I started to think. I needed to make pretzels.
Pretzels can be found in traditional bakeries in Alsace decided it was very fitting and set out on my venture to eat a warm pretzel and drink some Biere d'Alsace...

I'm sure you all have experienced the desire to make bread but when looking at the recipe get discouraged due to the time that bread consumes. Well I had a similar problem. My beloved pretzels were supposed to take 8 HOURS! But I did not get detoured; this was not going to stop me!!! Nor was it going to mess with the quality of my pretzel, but I really did not have a choice it was already 7pm when I started baking.

I started by letting my yeast, water, maple syrup, salt and olive oil sit until the yeast was activated. (A process that, if I had followed the recipe, was supposed to take upwards of 3 hours of yeast activating in cold water... easy to bi-pass)

 

 

Then I added 2 cups of flour and mixed vigorously with my spatula for about 3-4 minutes.

Then on the counter I added 1 more cup of flour while kneading the dough.

I let the dough rise until it had doubled in size (NOW for my biggest time saver, I was supposed to punch down the dough, coat in oil and put it in the fridge wrapped in plastic for 2-4 hours, but I just did not do it... hmmm... time saver? I think so)

Then I started rolling out my pretzels and twisting them up

I let them rise a little longer until I thought they were a nice size (ok, maybe I have a lot of bread baking experience but it really should not be daunting to any one!!!)

Finally I mixed up a little hazelnut milk and olive oil and brushed it on the pretzels adding all kinds of toppings like cheese, salt, caraway seeds and garlic powder.

And I stuck them in the oven for about 30 minutes (not something you can really speed up, what a bummer) at 357F

Pretzels in a heartbeat!

Now to enjoy with a nice Biere d'Alsace... can't you just taste it???

Alsace and Lorraine: Beer Brewing

I know this is a little different from what I am normally doing. However, I just could not resist the opportunity to brew some beer similar to the beer one would be able to find in Alsace and Lorraine and considering their German influences I thought I would be only fitting to include beer on my agenda.

The history of beer in Alsace starts back in the time of the Gauls. Then beer was for those who could not afford wine, however the well to do did drink a beer now and then. For many years beer brewing was an art only for monks to partake in because beer did not keep well unless it was cold. The monks took advantage of their beer brewing and offered their brews to travelers as a sign of hospitality. Beer was very useful for this purpose because wine was much too expensive to share readily. Even though laws allowed monks to monopolize the beer market the people of Alsace were allowed to brew in the winter, probably because during the winter months preservation was not a problem.
The next changes happened in response to the French Revolution in 1789. The brewing restrictions were lifted and citizens responded by opening up restaurants and hostels were their beer could be sold. Shortly there after a food revolution took place lead by Louis Pasteur who, as you may suspect, came up with foundation of ideas for modern pasteurization. All of these changes lead to many small breweries changing into bars or large-scale beer manufacturing companies.
Beer production in Alsace quadrupled in a mere 19 years and has continued to grow. Now Strasbourg has large brasseries mimicking the brew halls of Germany and is the leading manufacturer of beer in France. 54% of the countries beer comes from Alsace alone. I would have to say that is a pretty large amount of beer...
Now you can find companies like Fischer, Heineken and Schutzenburger operation out of Strasbourg. However, the leading French brewery is Kronenbourge.

Enough history, now for the brewing!

Because a typical 'Biere d'Alsace' or ‘Beer from Alsace’ is related to the common Pilsner type beer. I though I would make a beer of this style.
A Pilsner is simply a light lager with a hop-y character.

My recipe was simple and anyone new to home brewing could defiantly make this beer.
JUST REMEMBER THAT IT IS REALLY REALLY IMPORTANT TO SANITIZE EVERYTHING!
*note: in all the pictures the yellow-y orange water is a sanitizer solution made up of water and iodophor sanitizer!

Recipe

*this is a modified recipe, the base of which i found in The Complete Joy of Home Brewing by Charlie Papazian*

Hannah's Biere d'Alsace

6.7ilbs light malt extract syrup

11/2 oz Perle hops pellets (boiling)

1/2 oz Saaz hops pellets (aroma)

Bohiemian Lager yeast

 

I have a TON of pictures of this process so I going to try and keep text to a minimum now.

here is the recipe you must be dying for:

First things first: activate the yeast.

boil a gallon and a half of water with the malt extract and the boiling hops. Stir constantly while adding the malt extract (which you should be adding slowly) so that it does not stick to the bottom. Once the water comes to a boil set a timer for sixty minutes. Relax and wait but keep your eye on the boiling wort so that it does not boil over. This requires a certin finess about where the lid is placed so that enough air excapes but as little as possible actually evaporates. When there are only 2 minutes lefts on the timer add the aroma hops. when the timer goes off take out the hops and add the wort to about three gallons of water in a sanitized bucket then top off with more cold water to equal five gallons. When cool add yeast. Mix vigorously by turning the bucket. Put on your airlock and wish your beer luck.

sanitizing the bucket where the beer will ferment

Adding the malt extract

yum!

stirring...

stirring...

stirring...!

getting the last of the malt out.

almost empty...

  

tada!!!

Now to wait for the boil to begin!

In the mean time I will weigh out the hops!

i want to get just under 1 1/2 oz. 42grams would be perfect.

PERFECT!

  

Rabbit food or pellet hops?

Hop bag

It is boiling and ready for the hops!

adding the hops to the hop bag

you must make sure to fully submerge the hops. Even to move them around and get them nice and wet. Then you just want to tie the bag to the handle and wait.

The yeast is getting big! when I bought it it was flat!

Time to weight out the aroma hops

 

The aroma hops have been in the wort for the required two minutes. Now I'm letting the hops bag drain. The heat is off at this point.

What a pretty color.

 

Adding the wort to the cold water and the sanitized bucket.

  

sanitizing the yeast bag

Adding the yeast to the 5 cool gallons of beer. This is when you would put the lid on and shake the beer and yeast so that they are well mixed. 

This is an exciting part!

pour some of the beer off- this can be messy, and it was, be careful. 

 

add the beer to this special tube

 

IT IS TIME FOR THE HYDROMETER READING!

*you take one of these readings after adding the yeast then again before bottling the beer. These reading will provide you with the alcoholic content with a simple mathematical equation!*

NOTE: never put this beer back in. you would ruin all your efforts!!!

snap on the airlock

and put the beer some where safe where it will remain a constant temperature and not be disturbed. Ours went in the basement because Pilsners ferment at cooler temperatures (50 degrees F) so it should be perfect! even though this is not really a glamor shot.

Stay tuned for Beer Brewing part 2! Were we will learn how to bottle this brew!