🍢 SNACK
Gougères (Burgundy Cheese Puffs)
Crisp, hollow little choux puffs beaten with grated Comté or Gruyère and baked until deep gold, the classic bite with a glass of Burgundy.
French (Burgundian) · medium · serves 8
prep 20 min · cook 30 min
~256 cal · 10g protein · 15g carbs · 18g fat · 1g fiber · 0g sugars · 10g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
↓ Jump to Recipe
AI-generated illustration
Gougères are choux pastry with cheese beaten through it, piped into small mounds and baked until they puff up hollow, crisp outside and tender within. They are said to come from Burgundy, and particularly from Tonnerre in the Yonne, and they are still the thing a Burgundian wine cellar puts out when visitors come to taste: served cold on a plate among the bottles, or warm from the oven as an apéritif at home.
The dough is the same pâte à choux used for profiteroles and éclairs. Water and butter are brought to the boil, the flour goes in all at once and is beaten over the heat until it dries and pulls away from the pan, then eggs are beaten in one by one until the paste is glossy. A hard mountain cheese, Comté or Gruyère, goes into the dough and a little more on top, with salt, pepper and a grating of nutmeg.
Small ones, about the size of a walnut, are for handing round with a kir or a glass of Chablis; larger ones and whole rings are made for a first course.
Saved recipes and passport stamps are kept on this device. Sign in to keep them across your devices and leave reviews.
Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 8
- 250 ml water
- 100 g unsalted butter, cubed
- 1 tsp fine salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- a pinch nutmeg, freshly grated
- 150 g plain flour
- 4 eggs, large
- 120 g Comté or Gruyère, grated, traditional Comté and Gruyère are made with animal rennet; strict vegetarians should use a vegetarian-rennet hard cheese
Instructions
- 1Heat the oven to 200C (400F) and line two baking trays with baking paper.
- 2Put the water, butter, salt, pepper and nutmeg in a saucepan and bring to a rolling boil so the butter melts completely.
- 3Take the pan off the heat, tip in all the flour at once and beat hard with a wooden spoon until smooth. Return to low heat and keep beating for about 2 minutes, until the dough dries, forms a ball and leaves a thin film on the base of the pan.✎ Chef’s noteDrying the paste is what lets it take up all the eggs and puff in the oven. Stop when you see the film on the pan.
- 4Let the dough cool for 2 minutes, then beat in the eggs one at a time, working each in fully before adding the next, until the paste is glossy and drops from the spoon in a thick V shape.✎ Chef’s noteIt will look split and slippery after each egg. Keep beating and it comes back together.
- 5Beat in about 100 g of the cheese. Pipe or spoon walnut-sized mounds onto the trays, 5 cm apart, and scatter the rest of the cheese over the tops.
- 6Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until well puffed, deep golden and crisp, without opening the oven for the first 15 minutes. Serve warm, or at room temperature as they do in the Burgundy cellars, with a glass of white wine or kir.✎ Chef’s notePale gougères collapse as they cool. Bake them until they are properly brown and feel light and hollow when lifted.
Burgundian tradition (Yonne), served at cellar tastings and as an apéritif.
Ratings & reviews
Cooked it? Rate this dish:
No account needed. Sign in to leave a full review with a comment.
Cooked it?
Kept on this device, no account needed. Sign in to leave a review and keep your passport across your devices.
No reviews yet, be the first to cook it.
🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Burgundy. Coq au vin is a recipe for an old bird. A rooster past its usefulness is tough enough to need hours in wine, and the classic binding for the sauce is its own blood stirred in at the very end, which makes the modern supermarket-chicken version a different dish wearing the same name.
🗺️
France. France wrote its own geography into law. A decree of July 1935 created the appellation d'origine controlee, tying a name not merely to a place of origin but to a terroir and a method; cheeses came under their own statute in 1953; and a 1993 decree reserves the words pain de tradition francaise for bread made without additives and never frozen at any stage.
🌍
Europe. Europe has written a great deal of its food into law. A regulation of 1992 created the protected designation of origin and the protected geographical indication, tying a name to a place and a method, and an EU evaluation published in 2021 counted more than three thousand registered names across those schemes, from cheeses and hams down to particular shapes of bread.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from France
Ratatouille NiçoiseSummer vegetables stewed separately then united, Provence's answer to a garden at peak harvest.
Galettes de Sarrasin (Buckwheat Crêpes)Lacy, nutty buckwheat crêpes folded around ham, cheese, and an egg, the "complète" of every Breton crêperie.
Tarte Flambée (Flammekueche)Paper-thin dough blistered under crème fraîche, onions, and lardons, Alsace’s answer to pizza, out of the oven in minutes.
Browse all France recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Pot or saucepan, Oven.
Storing it: Store in an airtight container. Most keep 2 to 3 days at room temperature, and longer refrigerated.
Make it a France meal
Kir (Blanc-Cassis)Drink
Crème BrûléeDessert
Similar dishes from around the world
Tiropitakia (Greek Feta Cheese Phyllo Triangles)Greece
Topfengolatsche (Austrian Quark Pastry)Austria
Pastechi (Curaçao Fried Cheese Turnovers)Curaçao
Kifli me Djathë (Kosovar Cheese Crescent Rolls)Kosovo
Qassatat (Maltese Ricotta Pastries)Malta
Gibanica (Serbian Cheese Pie)Serbia
Frequently asked questions
What is Gougères (Burgundy Cheese Puffs)?
Crisp, hollow little choux puffs beaten with grated Comté or Gruyère and baked until deep gold, the classic bite with a glass of Burgundy.
Where does Gougères (Burgundy Cheese Puffs) come from?
Gougères (Burgundy Cheese Puffs) is a French (Burgundian) dish from Burgundy, France.
Can Gougères (Burgundy Cheese Puffs) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Gougères (Burgundy Cheese Puffs) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Gougères (Burgundy Cheese Puffs) safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Gougères (Burgundy Cheese Puffs) take to make?
About 50 minutes total (20 minutes prep, 30 minutes cooking), serving 8.
Get the Sunday Spin
One dish from somewhere in the world, in your inbox every Sunday. No spam, just dinner inspiration you can cook that day.