French Fridays with Dorie - Gougeres

The collective buzz you've heard is the sound of hundreds of bloggers blissing out over Around My French Table, the new cookbook by Dorie Greenspan. It was released early and those of us who pre-ordered it raced home to find a lovely surprise from Amazon on our doorsteps. I was so blown away by the book that I could only cover 20 pages at a sitting. Each page I thought "This is it...this is the first thing I'm going to make from the book." Then I'd turn the page and think "No, this is the one." And so on. With its eye popping photos, mouth watering recipes, and evocative prose, this is the most impressive cookbook I've seen since Ad Hoc at Home.

French Fridays with Dorie is the brainchild of Laurie of slush. Laurie formed Tuesdays with Dorie when she committed to cooking her way through Baking From My Home to Yours. The group is so popular that Laurie had to close the group to new members, and several hundred people have been patiently waiting for a group to tackle the new book.

The dilemma of what to make first was solved for me when Dorie herself picked the recipes for the first month of French Fridays with Dorie. And the first recipe for the group is gougeres, the classic French cheesy puff. A group of my Twitter buddies set a date for a Twitter bake-along, and we grated cheese, tweeted and had a great time.

Gougeres are made from choux, and they are easy and delicious. It's very helpful to have all of the ingredients measured and ready. I used my small cookie scoop to measure out the gougeres, and the recipe yielded 46 petit gougeres. I baked some to enjoy for lunch, and the rest went to the freezer (freeze on sheet pans until solid, then transfer to a zip top bag). To prepare frozen gougeres, place them on a baking pan lined with parchment paper or a Silpat, and bake them without defrosting.

These were sooo delicious, they were almost irresistible. They'd make the perfect hors d'oeuvres for a party or an ideal snack if you have company drop by. You can vary the cheese (I used Gruyere) and even add spices to change up the flavor.

Thanks, Dorie, for getting the group off to such a great start with this delicious and easy recipe. If you'd like to see how other FFwD cooks fared, you can find them here. And check out the book here. It's getting rave reviews, and not just from those of us who have followed Dorie for quite some time.