Gougères

Gougères are small choux pastry puffs made with cheese folded straight into the dough, baked until they crisp on the outside and stay hollow inside. It's Burgundy's savoury bite, traditionally offered instead of bread alongside a glass of wine before a meal, rather than served as part of the meal itself.

What it actually is

The same choux pastry base used for sweet pastries — flour, butter and egg cooked into a paste before piping — gets gruyère cheese, and sometimes a scatter more on top, worked directly into the dough rather than added as a filling afterward. Small mounds pipe out and bake until they puff up hollow with a golden, slightly crisp shell, the cheese inside baked right through the structure rather than sitting as a separate pocket.

Because the cheese is mixed into the dough itself, gougères taste savoury and cheesy all the way through, rather than plain pastry with a cheese filling added — that's the specific difference from a cheese-filled choux pastry made another way.

How it's served

• Warm, straight from the oven, whole and bite-sized.
• Alongside an apéritif, in place of bread, before the meal starts.
• Plain, without any dip or sauce, since the cheese is already baked through the dough.

Writing it on a menu

• Flag gluten, egg and dairy; the choux dough and gruyère carry all three.
• Say that they're best served warm, since the crisp shell softens as they cool.
• Note if you offer them as a pre-meal bite rather than a course, since that's their traditional role.
• Mention if you use a different cheese than gruyère, since the type used changes the flavour meaningfully.