Week 20 - Chocolate Soufflé
My sister Ellina and I had a sister's weekend and she wanted to cook something from one of my vintage cookbooks. We decided to make a chocolate soufflé from the 1960 "Better Homes & Gardens Dessert Cook Book"
I've never actually eaten a soufflé before and I've certainly never made it. It's one of those recipes that has a reputation of being difficult and temperamental so I've always avoided it.
Between melting chocolate in a double boiler and making merengue, there are many steps to this recipe, so it was nice to have some help for this one.
Ellina manning the double-boiler
Me, just mixing some egg yolks
Overall, it wasn't too difficult to make, but with so many steps it did take some time. My biggest issue with the recipe was that some of the instructions were a bit vague in terms of what to add and when. I had to look at a number of other soufflé recipes to try and figure out what to do.
The soufflé mixture in my Pyrex double-boiler
The soufflé rising in the oven in my Pyrex "Bride's" casserole dish.
To make this recipe properly, I really needed a soufflé dish, which I don't own, so I used one of my many vintage Pyrex casserole dishes. It has sloped and much higher sides than a traditional soufflé dish, so although our soufflé did rise and didn't fall, it wasn't able to rise above the edge of the dish itself.
Souffle just out of the oven
We ate the soufflé as soon as it was out of the oven. Since I cooked it in one big pan, rather than smaller ramekins, the individual portions were hard to get out of the pan and were just piles of soufflé on a plate. What it lacked in looks, it made up for in taste. It was very light, fluffy and chocolatey. If I made this again, I would use small ramekins instead of one larger dish.
Cookbook: "Better Homes & Gardens Dessert Cook Book" published in 1960
Recipe: Chocolate Souffle
Difficulty: Somewhat fussy
Alterations: None
Results: Very good
Make Again: Maybe, but I'd make them in individual ramekins next time.