Recipe: Kamala Harris Cheese Puffs (Gougéres)

Kamala Harris Cheese Puffs (Gougéres)

Vice President Kamala Harris served Cheese Puffs at her first official dinner at the Naval Observatory. While she hasn’t said how she made them, recipe forensics suggest she might have followed the Tartine Bakery recipe since a/Tartine is in the Bay Area, where she lives; b/the recipe is readily available in the Tartine Cookbook;  c/our finished product looks very much like hers. Whether or not this is her recipe, it’s easy to make and delicious. Makes 8 large cheese puffs (gougéres) or quite a few small ones.

Ingredients:
1 ¼ c nonfat milk (don’t use regular because it will curdle)
10 T unsalted butter
1 T Kosher salt, plus additional for topping
1 c all purpose flour
5 large eggs, plus additional for topping
¾ c good Gruyere or Comté cheese, plus additional for topping, grated
1 t freshly ground black pepper*
1 T fresh thyme, off the stem, or 1 t dried thyme

Method: preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat the milk, butter and salt in a saucepan to a full boil (keep stirring so the milk doesn’t scald the side of the pan) then add the flour all at once and stir briskly till all lumps are incorporated. Remove from heat and cool to 145 degrees (use a meat thermometer to read or just wait a few minutes). Beat in the eggs, one at a time, waiting till each is fully incorporated before adding the next. Mix thyme, black pepper and ¾ c grated cheese into the dough.

Sen. Debbie Stabenow took this picture of the VP’s cheese puffs.

Transfer using a large spoon to a half-sheet pan covered with a silpat or parchment paper; make 8 mounds of equal size and shape them into nice hemispheres with your spoon. (You can also pipe the dough onto the pan using a pastry bag and make as many as you like.) Beat the egg (you can also use an egg white, and reserve the yolk for another use) with a pinch of salt and brush onto the tops of the mounds, then sprinkle a little grated cheese on each. Bake 35-45 minutes until puffed up and cooked to a golden brown. Serve warm or at room temperature; if you’re not serving right away, prick the top of each gougére with a toothpick so it doesn’t deflate as quickly.

*The original Tartine gougére has a definite peppery bite, but the Vice President might have toned it down out of consideration for conservative tastes.