Chocolate Soufflé

I've been busy and so neglected this page for a while, oops!

A few weeks back I tried making chocolate soufflé following a recipe from Food and Wine magazine. It's hard for me to say how successful it was cuz not that many restaurants have soufflé on their dessert lists, well, not that many affordable ones anyway. I'm quite easy to please when it comes to desserts, as long as they are chocolaty so I was pretty pleased with the outcome.

The soufflé wasn't served with the Sapporo in the background, my friend just had beer with dinner beforehand.

Here comes the recipe, let your chocoholic self come out and play!

INGREDIENTS:

Make about 5 6-oz servings or 8 4-oz servings

2oz chocolate wafer cookies, finely crushed

1/2 cup + 2Tsp granulated sugar

3 Tsp unsalted butter, softened, and more for brushing

6oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped

2oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped

4 large egg yolks + 6 large egg whites, at room temp.

Pinch of salt.

METHOD:

In a medium bowl, combine the crushed chocolate wafer cookies with 2 Tsp of granulated sugar. Brush the ramekins with softened butter and coat them with the cookie mixture, pouring out and keeping the excess for later use. Place the ramekins on a baking sheet and refrigerate.

Melt the 3Tsp butter and chocolate over simmering water, stirring frequently until smooth. Remove the chocolate mixture and let it cool completely.

Preheat the oven to 400º. 

In a large bowl, beat the egg yolks with 6Tsp of sugar at medium speed until pale yellow and thickened. Gradually beat in the cooled chocolate mixture.

In another large bowl, using clean beaters, beat the egg whites with the pinch of salt until the whites form soft peaks. Gradually beat in the remaining 2Tsp of sugar until the beaten whites are glossy. Beat in one-fourth of the whites into the chocolate mixture before gently folding in the remaining until no streaks remain.

Carefully spoon the batter into the prepared ramekins, filling them almost to the top. Sprinkle each soufflé with 1/2 tsp of the cookie mixture. Run your thumb inside the rim of each ramekin to smooth the sides of the soufflés and help them rise evenly. (I didn't pay much attention to this step, hence the sharp edges in the photo above.)

Bake in the center of the oven until they are risen and firm around the edges but still soft in the center, about 15 minutes, serve immediately.

Bon appétit!