Impromptu Chocolate Soufflés

It's been a while and the time I've been spending not-here has been full of good things. I went on a ten day road trip with some friends, introduced them to my home city and then went adventuring in British Columbia. I surprised myself by jumping off a 25-foot cliff into the clearest turquoise water I have ever seen. I tried all kinds of new foods, gave my camera a serious workout, and came home slightly sunburnt and happier than I have been in some time.

And it's not just me experiencing the good times - a friend recently passed her Comps with flying colours and two others recently bought and moved into their first house. We ended up having an impromptu housewarming party on Sunday night, playing board games and baking. I hadn't planned on writing a post for this so I didn't take my good camera, yet it seems that I have developed a habit of photographing most of the cooking that I do now. I thought I'd write this up to show that soufflés aren't that hard despite their reputation - we were mucking around rather haphazardly and they turned out beautifully. The biggest thing to remember is to beat the egg whites enough and not to forget the cream of tartar. We made two batches as there were seven of us there; one batch used Lindt single source Madagascar 70% chocolate, and the other used the Lindt Black Currant chocolate. The currant soufflés won the night, I think. Give some thought to using a flavoured chocolate if you want to experiment - I imagine a mint or chile chocolate would be fantastic as well.

Chocolate Soufflés
recipe slightly modified from Dinners and Dreams

Makes 4

For coating the ramekins
1 tbsp salted butter
1/4 cup of sugar

For the soufflés
3 oz good quality dark chocolate (70%+; consider using a flavoured chocolate)
2 tbsp salted butter
1 tbsp unsulphered molasses
1/4 tsp vanilla
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch of ground clove
3 egg yolks

4 egg whites
pinch of cream of tartar

To get started, butter the sides of the ramekins. The original recipe says to use melted butter, but I prefer to use cold butter from the fridge as I find that melted butter tends to slide down the sides of the ramekins while I am working on the rest of the recipe and therefore doesn't do quite what it is intended to do. Once the ramekin has been buttered, pour roughly one tablespoon of sugar into each one and tip them so that the sugar sticks to the butter that you've just applied. The goal is to coat all of the butter with the sugar, so if you need a bit more sugar to make that happen, top up as required and then tap out the excess. What this preparation does is created something for the soufflé batter to cling to as it rises, helping to make the dessert light and airy. Once the ramekins are prepared, set them aside.

Preheat the oven to 375F.

Chop the chocolate you are planning on using into fairly small pieces. This will help it melt faster. Place the chocolate into a medium sized, microwave safe bowl. Add the butter, molasses, vanilla, ginger, cinnamon, and clove, and then microwave everything for 30 seconds. Stir everything together until it has evenly melted. If there is still unmelted chocolate after stirring, microwave everything again for another 30 seconds.

Separate three eggs, reserving the whites in a large bowl for later. Add each yolk to the chocolate batter individually and whisk until fully combined before adding the next yolk. The batter will thicken a bit with the addition of the egg yolks. Once all three yolks have been added, set the chocolate mixture aside for now.

To the reserved egg whites, add an additional egg white and a pinch of cream of tartar. Beat the eggs into soft peaks - they will create soft mounds when you pull the beaters out. If you are in doubt, beat the egg whites a bit longer. It's better to be closer to stiff peaks than have the whites not whipped enough or you won't get the rise you are looking for once they are in the oven. We whipped 8 egg whites at once, and it took us ~15 minutes to get to the right consistency.

Fold the whipped egg whites into the chocolate batter using a rubber spatula. As you fold, the batter will start to lighten in colour. Folding takes time, but is better than regular stirring in this case because it helps to preserve the volume of the egg whites. Keep folding until everything is well combined and a fairly uniform colour.

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared ramekins.

Place the ramekins in the oven (I usually put them on a cookie sheet to make moving them around a bit simpler) and bake for 12-13 minutes. They will look like they have taken a deep breath and will have lovely, domed tops. Do not open the oven while they are baking, as they could collapse due to the change in temperature.

Once they have finished baking, remove them from the oven and serve quickly. Soufflés will deflate as they cool (read: within moments) - this will not affect the flavour, but will impact the presentation. 

They can be served on their own or accompanied by some fruit, ice cream, etc. Enjoy!