November 2010 Daring Cooks Challenge: Souffle

Dave and Linda from Monkeyshines in the Kitchen chose Soufflés as our November 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge! Dave and Linda provided two of their own delicious recipes plus a sinfully decadent chocolate soufflé recipe adapted from Gordon Ramsay’s recipe found at the BBC Good Food website.

Wow,  souffle! When I think of souffles, I think of super-difficult, hush the house, no-one-better-dare-sneeze-while-this-is-baking! difficulty.  It is one of those dishes that that, if you can make a souffle, you are a successful, talented cook in my book.  Before tonight, I'd never had souffle, which only elevated its status in my mind.  I can't even say I've been wanting to try making a souffle just because it seems that daunting.  Yet, I was excited when I read the challenge.  I finally had to attempt souffle, and you know what? It really isn't that bad.  Yet another mythic dish slayed. Allriiiight.  (I am SUPER thrilled with myself right now, guys. I made souffle! Two kinds!!)

Generally, I like to stick with savory dishes for my Daring Cooks challenges and leave the sweets for the Daring Bakers challenge. BUT, this one time, I decided to do one of each.  Since I have no souffle repertoire, I used two of the recipes so generously provided.  For dinner, we had a crab and artichoke souffle (delicious!) and for dessert, chocolate souffle (scrumptious!).

Crab and Artichoke Souffle

(A Monkeyshines in the Kitchen recipe)

• 1 cup crab meat, flaked and lightly-packed
• ½ cup finely chopped cooked artichoke hearts (frozen, fresh or from a jar is OK, but please don’t use the marinated-in-oil style)
• 2 large egg yolks
• 3 large egg whites
• ½ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp cream of tartar
• 1 cup Gruyere cheese, shredded
• ½ tsp white pepper
• 1 Tbsp butter
• 1 Tbsp flour
• 1 tsp dried chives or tarragon
• 1 cup milk
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Additional butter and bread crumbs for preparing the dishes

1. Preheat oven to moderate 375 ˚F/190 ˚C/gas mark 5.

2. Prepare dishes – you can use one 2-quart (US)/1.9 litre or six 1-cup/240 ml soufflé dishes – by buttering the dish, then coating with bread crumbs. (You may have some left over soufflé mixture if you go with the smaller soufflé dishes.)

3. Chop the artichoke hearts into ¼”/0.5cm dice. If you use frozen or from a jar, then there’s no need to cook them. If you are using fresh, then steam gently until just softened, about 5 minutes or sauté over low heat until just ever so lightly browned.

4. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter, then stir in the flour to make a roux. – you just want to get the flour evenly blended to a paste, not cook the roux for any length of time. Gradually stir in the milk, mixing all the time. Add herbs, then the cheese. Stir until the cheese is melted and you have a thick sauce. Remove from heat.

5. Beat the egg yolks well and gently warm them by whisking them in a bowl over simmering water for six minutes.  Gradually stir the egg yolks into the cheese sauce until well blended.

6. Add the artichoke and flaked crab meat to the cheese sauce.

7. Beat the egg whites until at the stiff peak stage.

8. Fold the whites in thirds into the sauce.

9. Spoon the mixture into your baking dish and level the tops using a spatula. Be sure to wipe up any spills and make sure the edge is clean.

10. Bake for 40 min if you’re using a large soufflé dish or 25 min if using smaller dishes – the soufflé should be richly browned.

Gordon Ramsay's Chocolate Souffle

(Adapted From BBC Good Food Recipe by Gordon Ramsay)

• 2 Tbsp unsalted butter, for greasing
  Cocoa powder or finely grated chocolate
• 2 tbsp plain (all-purpose) flour
• 2 tsp caster (superfine) sugar (regular sugar is OK)
• ½ tsp corn starch
• 1 medium egg yolk
• 1 medium whole egg
• 4 Tbsp milk
• 5 Tbsp heavy cream 
• 3 oz good-quality dark chocolate preferably 70+% cocoa solids, broken in pieces
• 2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• Optional: 2 tsp orange zest or 2 tsp minced chipotle chile en adobo or 1 tsp chipotle chile powder.
• Optional: powdered sugar for dusting
• 6 medium egg whites
• 6½ Tbsp superfine/caster sugar (if you don’t have it, regular sugar is OK)

1. Heat oven to moderate 375 ˚F/190 ˚C/gas mark 5. 2. Take four 1 cup/~240ml soufflé dishes and brush them completely with softened butter. Tip a little cocoa powder or grated chocolate into each dish, roll the dish around tilting it as you do so it is evenly lined all round.

3. For the crème patisserie, mix the flour, sugar and corn starch into a small bowl. Put egg yolk and whole egg into a medium sized bowl, beat lightly, then beat in half of the flour mixture to give a smooth paste. Tip in the rest of the flour mixture and cocoa powder and mix well.

4. To make the ganache, pour the milk and cream into a pan and bring just to the boil. Remove from the heat. Add the chocolate and beat until it is melted and smooth with no lumps.

5. Gradually stir hot chocolate ganache into the paste from step 3, and add the orange zest or chile if using. This is your crème patisserie.

6. Whisk the egg whites to soft peaks with an electric whisk. Sprinkle in the sugar as you are mixing. Keep whisking to give stiff, firm peaks to give volume to the soufflés.

7. Stir about 2 tbsp (30 ml) of the beaten egg whites into the crème patisserie. Carefully fold in a third of the rest, cutting through the mixture. Fold in another third (take care not to lose the volume), then fold in the rest.

8. Spoon the mixture into the dishes. Run a spoon across the top of each dish so the mixture is completely flat. Take a little time to wipe any splashes off the outside of each dish, or they will burn on while cooking.

9. Bake the soufflés for 15-17 minutes.

10. The soufflés should have risen by about two thirds of their original height and jiggle when moved, but be set on top.