First Time Making...Soufflé
Hi everyone!
One dessert I have always been quite intimidated to make has been a soufflé. I've always thought there was something that would go quite wrong. Additionally, I’ve never ate a soufflé before. It is nerve-wracking to bake something with no clear goal for the end result. But, let me tell you. I made this chocolate soufflé recipe recently and it was…. kind of easy? Let me share with you how I made chocolate soufflé (and how you can to)!
The term soufflé is a French word based from the word souffler which means to “blow”, “breathe”, “inflate”, or “puff”. Hence, a soufflé done correctly, puffs or inflates up strikingly tall. Two components of a soufflé are the base and the meringue. The chocolate soufflé recipe I baked had a chocolate base.
1: Prep the Ramekins
I melted about 2TBSP of butter and brushed (using a pastry brush) the inside of 4 (6 oz) ramekins with the butter (hitting every spot of the interior of the ramekins-bottoms and sides). Then, I coated the interior of the ramekins with granulated sugar (1/2 TBSP per ramekin). Preparing the ramekins allows the soufflé to rise UP as it bakes.
2a: Make the chocolate base (melting the chocolate)
First, preheat the oven to 375. Simply, fill a medium to large saucepan halfway with water and bring to a simmer. Put a medium/ medium-large heat-safe bowl over the simmering water. Place 4.5 oz bittersweet chocolate and 1 oz unsweetened chocolate (both chocolates chopped) in the heat-safe bowl. Stir consistently until chocolate is melted. Set bowl aside. Discard saucepan with water.
2b: Make the chocolate base (adding the milk mixture)
Then, whisk 2/3 cup (160 grams) of milk with 1 TBSP cornstarch in a small saucepan over medium heat until it boils. Once boiling, whisk consistently for 1 minute. Add milk mixture to cool chocolate mixture in 3 additions-making sure milk is incorporated before adding more. Whisk in 2 large egg yolks (room temp) until chocolate mixture is smooth and combined. If at any point the chocolate mixture was clumpy, it should look nice and smooth after the egg yolks are mixed in. It will look sort of like a chocolate pudding/pastry cream.
3: Make the meringue.
Make sure your mixing bowl has NO traces of any other liquid. If you are nervous you can wipe down the bowl with citrus juice or vinegar. Using the whisk attachment, whisk 4 large egg whites (room temp) on low speed for about 1 minute. Add 1/8 tsp cream of tartar. Add 3 TBSP of granulated sugar slowly (1 TBSP at a time). Once incorporated, turn the mixture to high and beat egg whites until SOFT PEAKS form. You don’t want stiff peaks. As a resource this website has very nice pictures of what different peaks look like. you will notice soft peaks are VERY droopy. STOP AT SOFT PEAKS.
4th: Combine meringue and base:
Take 1/4 of your meringue mixture and stir in vigorously with a spatula INTO the chocolate mixture. This will combine the meringue and base. Take the remaining meringue and plop in on top of the chocolate mixture. Slowly, FOLD the remaining meringue into the chocolate mixture. This video serves as a resource if you are unfamiliar with the folding technique. You are gently incorporate meringue while preserving as much air as possible. The chocolate base should be in a medium to large bowl so you can easily combine the meringue. Once combined, you have your soufflé mixture.
5th: The final steps
Divide your soufflé mixture amongst the 4 ramekins pretty much to the top. Level off if necessary. Take your thumb or a butter knife and go all around the inside of the rim of the ramekin. This will push the batter inwards a bit and help it rise up. Place ramekins in a roasting pan or 9x13 pan and fill pan with boiling water (ideally from a kettle) until the water comes halfway up the ramekin. BE GENTLE and don’t let water get in the soufflé. My method is to place the pan in the oven and then gently add the water. Shut oven door. Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes. DO NOT OPEN OVEN DOOR TO PEEK. Once done, they should be nice and risen and sturdy. I took mine out at 22-23 minutes. Dust with powdered sugar and serve immediately!
So.. how do they taste?
I didn’t know what to expect from the chocolate soufflé as I’ve never had one before. Let me tell you, it is light as air. The batter is mainly whipped egg white so the interior structure doesn’t set like a bread/cake/cookie. It literally feels like a no calorie dessert because that is how light it is (we can pretend right…). The chocolate soufflé had a rich chocolate flavor and was just slightly sweet. This is a perfect dessert if you don’t like cloyingly sweet desserts.
Ready to give it a try? I tried to be very specific and provide resources in this post! At a later date, I hope to add my own pictures of this process. I feel like this recipe is very doable for many people. There are clear indicators for each step of the recipe. To recap,
1. Prep ramekins (buttered and sugared)
2. Make chocolate base (melt chocolate, add boiled mixture (may clump, who cares), whisk in yolks.. nice and smooth!)
3. Make meringue (whisk egg whites until soft peaks-where the peaks droop)
4. Beat in 1/4 meringue into chocolate-then fold in the rest (mixture should be airy!)
5. Divide mixture into ramekins. Run a butter knife around the inside of the ramekins (like you are loosening cake).
6. Bake in a water bath at 375 for 20-25 minutes (no opening the oven!), until towering and set. Serve immediately :)
Coming Up..
I hope to try more soufflé recipes in the future as all you have to do is make a base (like chocolate or fruit) and then fold in a meringue. That’s it! I recommend giving this recipe a try. Baking the soufflé in a water bath extends the cooking time (most soufflé only takes 13-15 minutes). However, I believe baking in a water bath acts as an insurance policy allowing the soufflé to slowly set its’ airy structure. If you make this soufflé please let me know how it turns out.
Have you made soufflé before? How’d it go?
Until next time!
