Julia Child's Soufflé au Chocolat
(Chocolate Souffle)
One thing Lovely Carnivorous Boyfriend and I nearly always agree on is dessert, in that we like most of them. A lot. He had asked for chocolate souffle last week, so I found this recipe for Julia Child's at the end of a rather interesting old Washington Post article about her and decided to make it for our Valentine's dessert. Sortof.
Modifications after the jump:
The original recipe serves 8 and is baked in a 2 to 2 1/2-qt. souffle dish. LCBF and I can put away a fair bit of chocolate, but souffle for 8 would have been a bit much, even for us. So, I essentially halved the the recipe and wound up with enough for two individual ramekins and two baby 1/2 c. ones. Still way too much souffle, but we made a valiant attempt at eating it.
Chocolate Souffle
(Serves 4)
4-oz. semi-sweet baking chocolate (I used one semi-sweet Ghiradelli baking bar)
about 1/6 c. flour
1 c. soy milk
1 1/2 tbl. butter
pinch salt
2 egg yolks
3 egg whites
1/4 c. sugar
1 tbl confectioners sugar
Child's recipe calls for strong coffee and vanilla as well, both of which I omitted--the coffee because I thought it would be a bit much for me and the vanilla by accident.
Preheat oven to 425F and place one rack at the bottom, removing others. Butter and flour the baking dishes. Melt the chocolate. (I have no double boiler, so I stick a small metal bowl on top of a sauce pan with simmering water in it.) Separate the eggs, placing the whites in a very clean metal bowl, wiped down with vinegar if necessary to remove any traces of grease or fat.
Wisk the flour and milk together in a saucepan and boil over med-high heat slowly while wisking. Child says to do this for 2 min., but I didn't really keep track. Soy milk is more forgiving than cow's milk (and it works/tastes the same in recipes! It's magical).
Take the milk/flour mixture off the heat (I put it in a separate bowl), and add the butter, salt, and egg yolks while wisking. Then add the chocolate. It will look like this:
This is your souffle base. Now it's time to deal with the egg whites. Take your egg whites and beat them to soft peaks with a very clean metal wisk (this recipe made me wish I had about 3 different wisks. I have no idea why I only have one). Then sprinkle in the sugar a bit at a time and continue to beat until you have stiff peaks and the mixture looks like a thick shiny batter. This takes several minutes. LCBF heard my sighs from the other room and offered his pinch wisking arm in the 9th to finish them off.
Pour the chocolate base down the side of the egg white bowl (not on top, or you'll smoosh the whites), and quickly fold the whites into the base. Take care not to overmix.
Pour souffle mixture into prepared baking dishes. Since the last time I made souffles--my monster ramekin eating goat cheese and herb ones--I have been researching how to make them rise straight up instead of out and up. One common tip seems to be to run your thumb around the inside of the dish making a bit of a pyramid to give the souffle some room to expand out, so I did this. But Julia taught me the real secret . . . aluminum foil rings around the dish! Brilliant. I should have buttered these, but they still worked. I fastened these with straight pins as Julia directs, but I think they would have stayed just by crimping.
I made these about 4 hours ahead of time and stuck them in the fridge, so I could just bake them off after dinner. That seemed to work well. When we were ready for dessert, I put them in the oven and turned the heat down to 375F. I baked them for 20 min., but they were still a little gooey in the middle and could've used 5 more minutes. We decided we liked the more mousse-like consistency though, so it worked out.
Sprinkle with the confectioners sugar (use a mesh sieve) and serve with organic strawberries. Eat immediately.
The original recipe serves 8 and is baked in a 2 to 2 1/2-qt. souffle dish. LCBF and I can put away a fair bit of chocolate, but souffle for 8 would have been a bit much, even for us. So, I essentially halved the the recipe and wound up with enough for two individual ramekins and two baby 1/2 c. ones. Still way too much souffle, but we made a valiant attempt at eating it.
Chocolate Souffle
(Serves 4)
4-oz. semi-sweet baking chocolate (I used one semi-sweet Ghiradelli baking bar)
about 1/6 c. flour
1 c. soy milk
1 1/2 tbl. butter
pinch salt
2 egg yolks
3 egg whites
1/4 c. sugar
1 tbl confectioners sugar
Child's recipe calls for strong coffee and vanilla as well, both of which I omitted--the coffee because I thought it would be a bit much for me and the vanilla by accident.
Preheat oven to 425F and place one rack at the bottom, removing others. Butter and flour the baking dishes. Melt the chocolate. (I have no double boiler, so I stick a small metal bowl on top of a sauce pan with simmering water in it.) Separate the eggs, placing the whites in a very clean metal bowl, wiped down with vinegar if necessary to remove any traces of grease or fat.
Wisk the flour and milk together in a saucepan and boil over med-high heat slowly while wisking. Child says to do this for 2 min., but I didn't really keep track. Soy milk is more forgiving than cow's milk (and it works/tastes the same in recipes! It's magical).
Take the milk/flour mixture off the heat (I put it in a separate bowl), and add the butter, salt, and egg yolks while wisking. Then add the chocolate. It will look like this:
Pour the chocolate base down the side of the egg white bowl (not on top, or you'll smoosh the whites), and quickly fold the whites into the base. Take care not to overmix.
Pour souffle mixture into prepared baking dishes. Since the last time I made souffles--my monster ramekin eating goat cheese and herb ones--I have been researching how to make them rise straight up instead of out and up. One common tip seems to be to run your thumb around the inside of the dish making a bit of a pyramid to give the souffle some room to expand out, so I did this. But Julia taught me the real secret . . . aluminum foil rings around the dish! Brilliant. I should have buttered these, but they still worked. I fastened these with straight pins as Julia directs, but I think they would have stayed just by crimping.
Sprinkle with the confectioners sugar (use a mesh sieve) and serve with organic strawberries. Eat immediately.
Yum!
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