The soufflé has a somewhat undeserved reputation for being difficult, the type of thing best not trifled with in just any kitchen. The name alone — it’s French, there’s a funny mark over the last letter, this can’t possibly be cooked. Allow me to disabuse you of this notion, just in time for Valentine’s day, with the chocolate soufflé. Trust me, you’ll thank me later.
A little background on what, exactly, a soufflé is. It might help to think of it as a balance between an omelette and a cake, protein and starch suspended in air. More than anything, though, a soufflé is a wonderful example of the dramatic versatility of the egg.
When making a soufflé, you start with a protein base, composed of egg yolks, starch and something to flavor the dish with. What makes a soufflé a soufflé, though, are the egg whites, whipped into 3-4 times their volume to fill them with air. This air, when heated, will expand and create the iconic shape, rising from the vessel in which it’s cooked. For chocolate soufflé, you’re essentially making a chocolate mousse and inflating it. It’s simple thermodynamics, really, nothing to be afraid of, however, there are a few things to keep in mind:
- The quality of your chocolate matters here. Splurge on the good stuff, throw out the bar of Baker’s Chocolate, hunt down some Scharffenberger,Ghirardelli or Guittard. (This recipe calls for bittersweet, which means something in the 70% cacao range)
- Melting chocolate is a rather delicate affair, don’t just toss it in a pot and throw it on the stove. Best to chop it into small pieces and melt it in a pan held over a pot of simmering water to keep it from separating.
- When whipping the egg whites, don’t allow any rogue proteins to interfere, they’ll weigh down the delicate structure of the foam. After mixing the egg yolks, clean your utensil before moving on to the whites.
Ok, enough science. The chocolate soufflé is pretty impressive to serve at home, you should feel free to play this up as much as you can get away with. The other wonderful thing about this dessert is that you can prepare it ahead of time, even a day or two, stored in the fridge, and it will still turn out just dandy. The only item you might not have on hand are individual serving sized ramekins, but these are probably worth stocking in your kitchen and there’s no time like Valentine’s Day for spending some cash. Skip the silly crème brûlée sets with their anemic culinary torches and too-shallow porcelain, go for something like this
set of ramekins.
As for recipes, I like the
one Mark Bittman published last year around this time — I’ve used others, this one strikes the right balance to me. I did a little experimenting of my own, though, and have a few pointers.
First, prepping this one ahead of time is the way to go. Total prep time is about half an hour, which is probably longer than you want to spend with a whisk in the kitchen on Saturday night after working your way through a bottle of wine. Set them up before dinner, store them (covered in plastic) in the fridge, and put them in a heated oven right after you finish dinner — dessert will be ready in 20 minutes, tops. As for cooking methods, I tried using both a water bath (you’ll often see these recommended for a soufflé) vs. just bare in the oven; skip the water bath, mine was quite underdone, more akin to chocolate soup. I tried a few different sugars for coating the inside of the ramekin — fine baker’s sugar, ordinary sugar and chunky demera. The baker’s sugar dissolved in the batter and provided no crunch, the demera too unseemly for an elegant presentation; I’d recommend using just normal sugar for a slight crust. As for removing the soufflé from the baking dish, hold the dish with a twice folded, dry towel, work quickly, use a knife around the edge of the dish if the soufflé sticks, and invert it on a plate. I wouldn’t recommend serving it in the ramekin, which gets quite hot and will burn your date, unless you’re into that sorta thing.
Finally, here it is. This serves two people just perfectly, if you need to double or triple the recipe, your Valentine’s Day is vastly more complex than we here at Salt & Fat can accommodate.
- A little butter for the ramekins
- 1/3 cup of sugar, plus about a tablespoon for the ramekins
- 3 eggs
- 2 oz of good bittersweet chocolate
- Pinch of salt
- 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
First, rub the inside of two 7oz ramekins with as much butter as you think the surfaces will hold. Then sprinkle a tablespoon or so of sugar amongst the two dishes and roll the them at about a 45 degree angle to coat the inside, including the walls, with sugar. The butter will help set the soufflé free of the dish and the sugar will give it a slightly crunchy crust. Set the dishes in the fridge to keep the butter from melting down the sides.
At some point, you’ll want to set the oven to 350 — I recommend prepping ahead of time, and the oven will likely be hot from dinner, so just keep this in mind.
Separate the eggs into yolks and whites. This is best done by cracking the eggs on a sharp surface, like the edge of a bowl, then passing the yolk back and forth between halves of the shell, over a bowl to catch the whites, making sure not to let the yolk contaminate the whites. Deposit the yolk in a separate bowl. Make sure to keep both the whites and the yolks.
Melt the chocolate in a saucepan over a pot of simmering, definitely not boiling, water, stirring occasionally. Take your time, this is pretty important.
Mix the yolks with 1/3 cup of sugar, minus one tablespoon (reserved for the egg whites), preferably using an electric hand mixer. I suppose you could use a whisk and do it by hand but a mixer really is the way to go here. Keep mixing on medium speed until the mixture is very light and about the consistency of frosting. Combine the melted chocolate with the mixed egg yolks and sugar.
Wash and dry the beaters on your mixer at this point. Seriously, you don’t want any of the protein from the yolks weighing down your egg whites.
Add the salt and cream of tartar (an acid that helps stabilize the egg white foam and add a little extra volume) to the egg whites and mix them for about two minutes, until they hold “stiff peaks” when you remove the beaters. Slowly add that remaining tablespoon of sugar and keep mixing for another minute or so — the egg white foam should be stiff but moist, with a glossy sheen.
Scoop out a great big dollop of the egg white foam and mix it well with the yolk/sugar/chocolate mixture to lighten it a bit. With your trusty
silicone spatula, fold the rest of egg white foam into the yolk mixture. The basic maneuver is this: scoop some egg white foam, cut vertically into the yolk mixture, then dump the yolk base and foam back onto itself. The idea is to incorporate the foam without losing too much of the air that’s been whipped into the whites.
Pour the mixture into the prepared ramekins and they’re ready for baking when you are. Bake for 18-20 minutes; use a toothpick to determine when they’re done (it’s ok if they’re slightly underdone, a molten center is nice). Invert onto a warm plate and serve as soon as you possibly can.
A sprinkling of confectioner’s sugar sifted through a colander or a garnish of sliced blood orange is nice. A snifter of port wine would be a lovely accompaniment.
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