Monday, September 24, 2007

Souffle Tuesday: Chocolate Challenges



Those tidy little dishes in the first picture? They're the "Before." No way are you seeing the "After." Suffice it to say that my previous proclamation about always filling souffle dishes to the rim should be ignored with this recipe -- unless of course you want to make them for a luau and label them "Oozing, Half-burnt Chocolate Lava Mounds."
Actually, the parts that managed to stay in the dishes were quite tasty, but the overall appearance: UGLY.
However, one of the reasons I wanted to try this recipe was the headnote promising the uncooked souffles could be frozen and then baked straight from the freezer. So, two ramekins went into the oven and the rest were wrapped tight and frozen. First, the recipe:

Do-Ahead Chocolate Souffle
(from Cooking Light Magazine)

butter (instead of the cooking spray suggested by C.L.)
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar, divided
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups fat-free milk
3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg yolk
6 large egg whites

Preheat oven to 425-degrees.
Generously butter the interiors of 6 (8-ounce) souffle dishes. Sprinkle with the 2 tablesppons sugar. Set in refrigerator.
Combine remaining 1/2 cup sugar, flour, cocoa and salt in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring with a whisk.
Gradually add the milk, stirring constantly with a whisk, and bring to a boil. Cook 2 minutes or until slightly thick, whisking constantly. Remove from heat. Add the chopped chocolate and stir until smooth. Transfer mixture to a large bowl; cool to room temperature and then stir in the vanilla and the egg yolk.
Beat the egg whites util soft peaks form. Stir in 1/4 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and then fold in the remainder..
Spoon mixture into prepared dishes; place on a baking sheet and put on lowest shelf of the pre-heated oven. Immediately reduce oven temperature to 350-degrees. Cook for about 35 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the side of a souffle comes out clean.


Two days after the flowing-over-the-rim-and-baking-solidly-onto-the-ramekin-sides episode, I pulled one of the frozen souffles from the freezer, scraped some of the frozen batter from around the inside edge of the dish, baked it about 5 minutes longer than the unfrozen ones and had a far happier result. Witness Photo #2. Now if I could just remember to set out the camera before I take a souffle from the oven I might actually get a picture at full poof.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

i think souffle tuesday is possibly my favorite day of the week!

Anonymous said...

Love that first paragraph :)

Rowena said...

I am that much closer to attempting souffles. If this chilly weather keeps up, what better than to tuck into a nice ramekin of warm and airy chocolatey goodness. :-)

Katie Zeller said...

I like the idea of being able ro freeze, then bake... I love chocolate desserts but hate to fuss at the last minute. Actually, Id rather have someone else do it...
I've done the 'overflowing ramekins' once or twice..

Parisbreakfasts said...

Boy! does that look good!

La Tartine Gourmande said...

chocolate and souffle together. Yum, two of favorite things!

Bea
http://www.beatricepeltre.com/

Helene said...

My favorite time ot the week! They look very tempting and light!