Souffle means "to puff" in French. French cooking is the origin of this dish and it is a classic delight. Souffles can be sweet like chocolate or lemon or they can be savory like cheese or lobster. Although the timing is sensitive it is not a difficult dish to make. The expertise comes in the method. That is usually the trick in French cooking. All of the flavor comes from the egg yolk have of the combination. You make a roux of butter and flour, add a little milk or other liquid and allow the roux to thicken the liquid. Let the liquid cool and add egg yolks, one at a time. And that's your base....add more flavorings like lemon or orange/passion fruit juice, citrus zest or other intense flavors and set this aside until your souffle dish or ramekins are prepared and your egg whites are beaten stiff but not dry. When it's time to mix the base with the "poof" take gentle care in folding (not mixing) the two together by starting with adding 1/4 of the whites to the base and then continuing 1/4 egg whites at a time until fully incorporated. Gently add any more ingredients like broccoli or lobster or raspberries before filling the baking dish (s).
Preparing the souffle dish is important too. If sweet, butter the dish then coat the butter with sugar and put in the fridge to get cold before filling them. If savory, butter and then coat with Parmesan cheese. This will give the outside of your souffle a little flavor and crunch of its own.
Fill the souffle dishes 3/4 of the way full and make sure the rims are clean before popping them in a hot oven. An aluminum foil collar is optional but if the baking pan has adequate space left it's not necessary Now NO PEAKING until the last 2 minutes of baking. If you open the oven door too soon the souffle with fall.
I used Anne Burrell's recipe for my basic lemon souffle: I prefer baking in just one 6 cup souffle dish but the little ramekins are cute
Next fruit souffle: blood orange/passion fruit. I used the exact same method and substituted 3/4 cup blood orange/ passion fruit juice for the lemon juice and blood orange zest for the lemon zest. So fresh and delicious
I used Claire Robinson's recipe for chocolate souffle. It's easy and reliable but not as traditional. Still it's impossible to find fault with any of it.
Now when you make a cheese souffle the only mentor I have for this is Julia. A perfect Julia Child masterpiece You can watch the entire French Chef episode on YouTube
Julia's ingredients:
Sauce: 8 egg whites (1 cup) 1 cup of cheese
3 TBs Butter 1 tsp cream of tartar
4 1/2 TBs flour pinch (large) of salt
1 1/2 cup warm milk
salt, pepper, nutmeg, cayenne
6 egg yolks
Place in 400 deg oven and once in reduce to 375 deg. Bake for about 30 minutes. A little jiggle is ok. I followed this recipe for the blue background cheese souffle above. You can see it's perfect
Bon Appetit!!!!!!!
