let's cook: soufflés

The cooking challenge is back!

This time we chose to make soufflés. The flavour was optional so we've ended up in a sweet vs. savoury situation, which is quite nice.

My mum went for a GIANT cheese soufflé:



While I made mini chocolate soufflé pots:


[Note: The zoom on these photos may be misleading]

I made mine to accompany a delicious meal made by Mark. They went down a storm - they rose well and were nice and gooey. We have since had them again at home (courtesy of Mark) so that's a positive seal of approval.

My dad gave my mum 5 out of 5. Top marks! Although he said he wouldn't want to eat it again. I'm not sure if that makes sense, but it did look quite a substantial feast.

A good result all round. And in the process I discovered that making a soufflé is far less complex than I first thought. I thought it was all egg whites and whisking, but my recipe involved none of that kerfuffle (maybe I cheated?).

Here's the recipe though, so you can judge for yourselves:

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Mini chocolate soufflés
(enough to fill 8 ramekins)


Ingredients
200g dark chocolate
150 butter (plus a little extra for the ramekins)
6 eggs
175g sugar
125g plain flour


Instructions
Heat the oven to 180ºC and butter the ramekins.

Melt the chocolate and butter in a bowl over simmering water.

Beat the eggs with the sugar until they are very fluffy and light and then fold in the flour, followed by the chocolate and butter mixture.

Divide between ramekins (you can put some in the fridge at this stage if you want to eat them later).

Bake in the over for 8-10 minutes. They should rise slightly and have firm outsides whilst still being nice and gooey in the middle.

Dust with icing sugar and serve hot.

I would recommend vanilla ice cream and honeycomb as a great accompaniment.

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Enjoy!!!



Next time we will be cooking decorative shortcrust pastry pies. Just in time for British Pie Week.