No Stress Chocolate Souffle

Chocolate Souffle

Souffles are so decadent and impressive.  It's one of my favourite desserts.  Souffles have a bad rep - hard to make, very finicky and  I was apprehensive trying out this recipe.  It turned out rather well for a first attempt and it bakes up well even after freezing.  Now with my stash in my freezer, I can have my souffle fix every night just by using my small toaster/convection oven :).  So addictive when served with a small scoop of white chocolate ice cream and raspberries.

Tips:

Use a clean, dry metal bowl to beat the egg whites.  Make sure there is no egg yolk in the whites. 

Fold in the whites gently with as few strokes as possible. 

Chill the ramekins after greasing and covering with sugar.

Don't open the oven door while baking. 

Chocolate Souffle Recipe (Adapted from America's Test Kitchen)

Ingredients:

1/3 cup sugar

7 oz bittersweet chocolate ( I used Callebaut 70% cocoa)

56 g butter

1 tsp coffee essence 

1 tsp vanilla essence 

1/8 tsp salt 

6 large egg yolks 

8 large egg whites

1/2 tsp cream of tartar 

2 tbsp confectioner's sugar

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 400F. 
2. Grease 10 4oz ramekins (that was what I have but this recipe works with 6oz ramekins too) with butter and sprinkle sugar to coat evenly.  Set the ramekins on a rimmed baking sheet and chill.
3. Melt the chocolate and butter over a double boiler or in the microwave.  Stir in the vanilla, coffee essence and salt and let the mixture cool. 
4. Whip the egg yolks and granulated sugar until the mixture thickens and triples in volume.  Fold the egg yolk mixture gently into the chocolate mixture.
5. Whip the egg whites to break it up and add in the cream of tartar until soft peaks.  Add the confectioner's sugar and whip till the whites and glossy and reach stiff peaks. 
6. Fold 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture until almost fully incorporated.  Fold the rest of the egg whites in.
7. Fill the ramekins 3/4 full.

For the 4oz ramekins. 

Bake 8 min if baking immediately. 

If you want to make ahead and freeze, cover tightly with glad wrap and cover with foil.  Bake for 13min straight from the freezer. 

If using larger ramekins, adjust the baking time accordingly.

When the ramekins are filled almost to the brim instead of just 3/4 full, they rise quite nicely.