Souffle Day

In honor of Wednesday I decided to make a souffle. I have never made a souffle but just like other things I see people do seemingly easily on TV I was sure I could do it or at least fail trying. So I pulled out my beloved The New Doubleday Cookbook. This book has everything in it. Everything except focaccia bread that is. It has always surprised me that it doesn't have a recipe in there for focaccia because it has a recipe for nearly everything else. I turn to it for a basic recipe and will then adapt it to fit what I have on hand or what I like. It had a hot and cold chocolate souffle and since I was looking for a souffle that I could pour a rich dark chocolate ganache into I made the hot recipe.
When I read the recipe I realized that a souffle is sort of like a cooked mousse. You make the custard, fold in egg whites and bake until impressively puffy whereas with a mousse you also fold in whipped cream and chill. After making the souffle I decided chocolate mousse is more worth the effort to me.
I made the custard early in the evening to allow time for it to cool down to room temp. Since the recipe said to cook it over moderate heat, stirring constantly until boiling, I stirred and waited for it to boil for a long time before finally realizing I had to crank up the heat a little. This base was made of 1 c. whole milk, 2 T. cornstarch and 3/4 cup sugar and once it thickened it looked very much like elmer's glue so when I poured in the 2 oz grated unsweetened chocolate I was glad it started to look like something edible. Then I added 4 egg yolks one at a time which made the custard a custard and gave it a sheen like only fat can. (If anyone is actually going to follow this recipe remove the milk mixture from the heat after it has thickened and before adding the chocolate and yolks)

Having plenty of time to kill while the custard cooled I went to watch some Tivoed episodes of Chef at Home. My favorite cooking show. It comes on Discovery Home here in the U.S. and the Food Network Canada. I really like it but it seems like Discovery Home bought 10 episodes because it is always a rerun but I can watch that show multiple times and still have fun. The episode I watched was where he makes a tarragon leg o' lamb. and while I am not a big lamb fan it looked really good and I would gladly eat it with gusto.
When the custard had cooled completely I went to finish it by folding in the beaten egg whites into the custard.


I poured it into four small ramekins and one larger one. I was really happy watching them bake and rise because I knew if they rose at all then it was a success. The unfortunate thing was that by the time my family finished dinner and ate them they had fallen a little and we missed out on eating them hot and puffy. They were still good though and actually reminded me of a flourless chocolate cake I had once. The chocolate sauce made all the difference though making them sort of like a molten cake but not as good. Definately a good way to celebrate the passing of the middle of the week.