I’ve been wanting to attempt the daunting soufflé for some time now. I finally did it! It wasn’t a total success, but not a failure either. I was waiting patiently by the oven watching it rise and hoping it would keep rising, but it did not. Sadness. Instead of rising more, I ended up over-baking it by a couple of minutes. However, the center was still quite creamy and it had a rich, chocolate taste. Next time I will take it easy on the folding and shed a couple minutes off my bake time. I will not let the soufflé beat me…

Chocolate Soufflé Print Recipe

Serves 6
From Kathleen Flinn “The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry”

Chocolate Pastry Cream

Ingredients

4 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
2 cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
7 tablespoons all-purpose flour
6 egg whites
1 1/2 tablespoons orange liqueur (optional) *I left this out
Confectioners’ sugar for dusting
Unsalted butter, softened, and sugar for soufflé mold

Directions

Preheat oven to 425. Brush all 6 of your 1-cup soufflé molds with softened butter. Place a small amount of sugar in each mold and carefully tap to coat the mold (tap out any excess). Refrigerate until needed.

To prepare the chocolate pastry cream, prepare a double boiler. Bring one to two inches of water to a simmer in a small saucepan. Place a heatproof bowl over the top of the simmering pan. Place chocolate in bowl and allow the chocolate to melt without stirring.

Meanwhile, heat the milk and vanilla to a boil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan.

In a small heatproof bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until thick and pale yellow. Whisk in the flour.

Now whisk in a couple tablespoons of the hot vanilla milk and a little of the egg mixture into the chocolate pastry cream (this is called tempering and allows the mixture to come closer to the same temperature).

Whisk the remaining milk and eggs together in a bowl. Pour this mixture back into a saucepan. With the heat at medium, bring to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer until the mixture is thick. Make sure to stir constantly to avoid burning. Now add in the tempered chocolate mixture. Remove from heat, but make sure the mixture stays warm.

Now in a medium bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Stir 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate pastry cream. Now gently fold in the remaining egg whites with a rubber spatula.

Pour the batter into the prepared soufflé molds and bake for fifteen minutes at 425. Now reduce the heat to 375 and bake until the soufflés have puffed up and are firm to the touch, about 10-15 minutes. You want the soufflés to rise, but still have a little jiggle to them. Punch a hole in the top and pour in the liquer, if using. Carefully sift confectioners’ sugar over the top and serve immediately. Enjoy!