Chocolate Souffle
Mark Bittman prepares an almost-foolproof chocolate souffle.
- Article: Chocolate Souffle
- Article: By Public Demand: Chocolate Souffle
SCRIPT, LISTENING TIPS, & GRAMMAR
It’s Valentine’s Day…! And last year we did that the classic Valentine’s Day dish, Brave Short Ribs. This year we asked you to read the blog nytime.com/bitten, what they want to see for Valentine’s Day recipe, and many of you said, Chocolate Souffle, so I have come up with the drop-dead, easy, fool-proof, this means you, all time, chocolate souffle.
I didn’t say, this was technique free, there is some technique here, but it’s all very manageable.. One cool thing is you butter and sugar Ramekin. Take a little bit of butter, you smear on inside of your Ramekin, this is not only to keep it the souffle itself from sticking butt for flavor, and then you put in some sugar, it doesn’t particularly matter how much, say it a tea spoon, and you just roll that around like that, so that’s step 1.
Wipe hands. Step 2, separates some eggs. Step 3, melt some chocolate so separate three eggs. Melt two ounces of bitter sweet chocolate, high quality, please. And then start beating those yolks. You have to beat these for a while. If the soup colors like* orange, they all have to become yellow. A third of a cup of sugar here, and most of its go into these yolks. Just gradually a little bit at a time. It’ll take five minutes or so. You can’t cheat here, you have to do this…. Got it? Become very pale yellow and full… oops… full from beaters one continuous strand… looks almost there. It’s gotta be there, wait for the beater to stop. I’ll get a good one here for the camera… Here we go!
Get the chocolate, you melted in a microwave over double boiler or even flame if you’re really careful. Don’t burn it! Hum.. that smells good. Very important to lick your fingers! Now, if you’re new to this, you might not know this part, whites will not gain any loft if there is any fat at all in there, so this have to be washed. Ready to go on the whites. Tiny pinch of salts, and a pinch of cream of tartar. Look how fast it is going! So the rest of sugar, too. If you over beat the whites, it will get watery. If they look like this, they are done. Beautiful!
These whites have to go on to here and lighten this whole mixture. Start by putting a quarter of tong, maybe third, and really. This is not folding, this is stirring. Now the rest of the whites need to get folded it in very gently, cause this is where all of the waffle souffle is coming from. Get them in there and now you fold. It doesn’t have to be perfect, it’s more important to keep that fluffiness in there and airiness. Now into your Ramekins. Now the great thing about this souffle done this way, is you can now cover and refrigerate these for an hour maybe even two. So you can make this before a dinner up until this point, throw them in fridge and then bake them after dinner. They take only 15 to 20 minutes to bake. But, I’m going straight into oven with these.
Tada…! Well, as you can see, one came out little bit better than the other, in fact, I don’t want to distract you. I think I put more one than the other. Beautiful crust, little foamy interior, very souffle like…! Very rich, enchanting…!
* I’m not sure this is correct words…
Time: About 45 minutes
About 1 tablespoon butter for dish
1/3 cup sugar, plus some for dish
3 eggs, separated
2 ounces good quality bittersweetchocolate, melted
Pinch salt
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar.
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter two 2-cup or one 4-cup souffle or other deep baking dish(es). Sprinkle each with sugar, invert it and tap to remove excess sugar.
2. Beat egg yolks with all but 1 tablespoon sugar until very light and very thick; mixture will fall in a ribbon from beaters when it is ready. Mix in the melted chocolate until well combined; set aside.
3. Wash beaters well, then beat egg whites with salt and cream of tartar until whites hold soft peaks; continue to beat, gradually adding remaining tablespoon sugar, until they are very stiff and glossy. Stir a good spoonful of whites thoroughly into egg yolk mixture to lighten it; then fold in remaining whites, using a rubber spatula. Transfer to prepared souffle dish(es); at this point you can cover and refrigerate until you are ready to bake.
4. Bake until center is nearly set, 20 minutes for individual souffles and 25 to 35 minutes for a single large souffle. Serve immediately.
Yield: 2 servings.
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