They were a triumph too.......
These actually rose more than this but I was faffing around trying to get my camera to work so they deflated a little bit.
People often assume that it's difficult to make soufflés but it's really quite easy and you shouldn't be put off giving them a go.
I made these for 4 people and for that you need -
4 x Ramekins (picture link because not everybody knows what a Ramekin looks like)
5 x Medium sized Fresh Free range eggs - separate these into whites and yolks
1 x Block of hard goats cheese - Grated. You'll use about 200g in the recipe. Also this is just my preference but you could use a less hard cheese, or any other cheese for that matter and crumble it in.
1 x Small white onion or Eschalon/Banana shallot
4 x Cloves
1 x Bayleaf
1 tsp x Black Peppercorns
Unsalted Butter
400ml x Full fat milk
1 tbsp x Plain Flour
First thing you should do is grease the inside of the ramekins with a thin coating of the unsalted butter then leave then in the fridge until they are ready to be used.
This greasing will help the Soufflé rise up the sides of the ramekin without getting stuck.
Secondly you should pre-heat an oven to around 190C/375F and have a tray ready that can hold all the ramekins and still have a bit of room to spare. This will really help when it comes to getting them out the oven.
Next take the onion and stud it with the cloves, just push the woody stalk into the onion leaving the bulbous end on the outside. There is no need to peel the onion but it might be a good idea to just remove any loose bits of the skin.
Pour the milk into a saucepan add the studded onion, a teaspoon of Black Peppercorns and the Bayleaf, bring the milk up to boiling point. Once there take off the heat and leave for about 10 minutes so the flavours of the added ingredients can infuse the milk a little more before straining the liquid through a fine sieve to remove the onion, peppercorns and Bayleaf. Keep the milk to one side for the moment.
Give the same saucepan a clean then put over a light/moderate heat and add 1 tablespoon of butter, let it melt then add 1 tablespoon of plain flour. Let this mixture combine, this is called a "Roux". The longer you cook a Roux the more the colour will change from white to brown. For this recipe we want to keep it fairly light in colour so once it's combined slowly and gradually pour in the infused milk making sure you stir it all the time with a wooden spoon to stop any lumps forming.
Now whisk egg yolks and while constantly stirring the saucepan of warm milk trickle the yolks in a little at a time. It's really important not to just pour all the egg yolk in at once and also just as important that you stir it all the time because otherwise you'll end up with scrambled eggs and that would mean starting all over again.
Once all the egg yolks are mixed in then add the grated cheese in too, again a little at a time and keep stirring, you can save a little bit of the cheese to top off the soufflés when cooking but it's not essential, just a nice touch.
This cheese sauce is what is going to give the soufflés their flavour, you could also use it as a sauce for pasta.
Give yourself a 10 minute break to allow the sauce to cool a bit because there's some energetic whisking to come......
The lightness and the raising of the soufflé is all about the egg whites and the amount of air you can get into them.
Put the egg whites into a mixing bowl and with a balloon whisk keep working the egg whites until the reach the soft peak stage
Now what you need to do it combine the sauce mixture with the egg whites but as I mentioned above it's all about the air so if you were to just pour all the sauce into the egg whites a give it a stir with a wooden spoon you'd just beat out all the air bubbles that have been created by the whisking.
What you should do is again add a bit at a time and instead of stirring the mixture you need to fold it in gently. It'll take longer to fully combine but it's absolutely necessary for the soufflés to rise.
Take the ramekins from the fridge and gently spoon the combined egg white and cheese mixture into each one so it's level with the ridge inside (usually about 80% full) and sprinkle on a light coating of the reserved grated Goats Cheese.
Put the ramekins on the oven tray and into the oven for about 12 minutes. During cooking do not under any circumstances open the oven door, this will instantly deflate the soufflés. If you really feel the need to see them cook then only look at them through the glass front of the closed oven door using the ovens internal light if it has one. If your oven has neither of these then just trust me on the temperature and the timings.
After they have cooked serve them immediately. About 1 minute after taking from the oven they will naturally start deflating so getting them on the table as soon as you can is imperative. No faffing like I did for the photo......
Once you have made one soufflé you can make them forever and of course with different variations too.
This is a savoury soufflé but you can make sweet ones just the same way but instead of using the egg yolks to thicken the sauce you use sugar which you beat into the egg whites when whisking and instead of the savoury sauce you can use fruits and/or berries that you've made into a syrup.
A nice touch when making sweet soufflés is to add a think coat of sugar to the butter when you grease the ramekins.
Wow!!! x
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