A Recipe from Rebecca: Sue’s Parsnip Gougères | Canalside Community Food

My sister-in-law Sue makes these crunchy, cheesy little choux pastries as a special nibble for the holiday season, but they are good all year round. The mustard powder adds extra kick.

Parsnip Gougères

Ingredients

200g strong white flour

25g mustard powder

1 teaspoon ground allspice

200ml water

75g unsalted butter

1½ teaspoons salt

5 medium eggs

150g parsnip, peeled and grated

250g cheddar or stilton, broken into hazelnut-sized lumps

Method

Mix the flour, mustard powder and allspice and set aside.

Put the water, butter and salt in saucepan and bring to a boil.

As soon as the water starts to boil, tip in the dry ingredients and beat well with a sturdy whisk or wooden spoon, until a ball of dough forms in the pan and starts to come away from the sides.

Remove the pan from the heat and leave to cool for a few minutes.

Beat in the eggs one at a time, until smooth. Sue notes ‘this takes a surprising amount of elbow grease, so it will be much easier with a very sturdy stand mixer’.

Stir in the grated parsnip and transfer to a container in the fridge, where it will keep for a day or so if you want to prepare the dough in advance.

To cook, preheat the oven to 220C (200C for a fan oven). Cover a baking tray with nonstick paper. Add the cheese to the dough and stir gently. The mixture will be VERY sticky. Spoon walnut-sized dollops onto the tray and bake for about 15-20 minutes, until puffed and sizzling. You will probably need to bake this in several batches, as it is too much to fit onto a single tray.

Recipe courtesy of Sue Western.