This recipe is primarily dependant on dark chocolate, so be sure to use the best quality dark chocolate that you enjoy. I like Dagoba and Scharffen Berger chocolate.
Assemble the ingredients: 1 ounce (30 mL) heavy cream, 4 oz. (115 g) 70% cacao dark chocolate, 1/2 tablespoon (7 g) butter, 2 large eggs (separated into whites and yolks), a dash of cream of tartar, and 1/6 cup (35 g) sugar.
Prepare two 6 ounce (180 mL) soufflé ramekins by applying a layer of cold butter to the interior of the ramekins. Use your fingers to apply an even, thin coat of butter to all parts of the ramekin including the sides. Pour some granulated sugar into the ramekin and shake and roll the ramekin to coat the bottom and sides with sugar. Several sources claim that the butter and sugar help the souffle rise, but this is not actually true. The butter and sugar are really there to add flavor of the crust and aid in the release of the soufflé from the ramekin (if desired).Latest Articles
Bring some water to a boil in a pot. Once the water boils, reduce the heat until the water just simmers. Place a small metal bowl over the pot to form a double boiler.
Melt the butter, cream, and chocolate in the double boiler.
Stir to help the melting. Once the chocolate has melted, turn off the heat.
Whisk the two egg yolks into the chocolate.
The resulting mixture may look like the chocolate seized, but don't worry, it will smooth out once the egg whites are folded in.
In a medium bowl, beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar until the egg whites reach soft peaks. (The cream of tartar is added to egg whites to increase the acidity slightly. This allows the proteins to bind together a bit more easily making stronger bubbles to form the basis of the egg white foam.) This can be accomplished with a bit of effort with a whisk (took me about 5 minutes) or a hand mixer with a whisk attachment. The term soft peaks means the foam has reached the point where the egg whites stand up when the whisk (or your finger) is lightly dipped into the foam and gently lifted out. The tip of the peak should droop. If the tip stands up straight, then it has reached the stiff peaks stage.
Add the sugar to the egg whites and continue to beat until you reach stiff peaks. Adding the whites a little at a time, fold them into the chocolate mixture.
Without over mixing, fold the remaining egg whites into the batter.
Pour the batter into the two prepared ramekins. Fill them at least 3/4 of the way up. They are now ready to be baked.The best part of making soufflés is that they can be prepared to this point beforehand and refrigerated for up to three days. On the day you plan to serve the soufflés, take them out of the refrigerator about two hours before you plan to serve them so they can warm up a little. If you don't take them out of the fridge early, then bake them for an extra minute or two.
Place the ramekins on a baking pan and place the pan in the oven on a rack set in the middle position. Bake the soufflés for 15 minutes at 375°F (190°C). As it bakes, the air bubbles we've incorporated into the batter will start to expand, causing the entire souffle to rise. After fifteen minutes, the soufflé will have risen up out of the ramekin (the photo shows an example of a ramekin filled to the 3/4 full level). (Greater lift can be achieved by using three egg whites instead of two).
Serve immediately in the ramekin. (Ramekins will be hot, so use some hand protection to transfer the soufflé.) As the soufflé cools, it will drop and become more dense. An alternate method of service is to remove the soufflé from the ramekin. This easiest accomplished once the soufflé has cooled a bit and a knife has been run along the sides. The soufflé can be inverted and tapped out onto a catching hand and then deposited onto a plate. Reheating the soufflé at this point will allow the air bubbles to expand again and the soufflé will rise back up (although not to its former size).Dark Chocolate Soufflé (serves two; recipe can be doubled)
| Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C) and prepare two 6 oz. (180 mL) ramekins with butter and sugar | |||||
| 4 oz. (115 g) 70% cacao chocolate | melt in double boiler | whisk | fold in egg whites | pour into ramekins | bake 375°F (190°C) 15 min. |
| 1/2 Tbs. (7 g) butter | |||||
| 1 oz. (30 mL) heavy cream | |||||
| 2 large egg yolks | |||||
| 2-3 large egg whites | whisk to soft peaks | whisk to stiff peaks | |||
| a dash (1/16 tsp.) cream of tartar | |||||
| 1/6 cup (35 g) sugar | |||||
Hopefully, many will still find this recipe useful.
If there is sudden or massive shock to the souffle (dropping it a couple inches might do it) or a blast of cold air could cause the air bubbles to collapse. Larger souffles (such as a 1-1/2 quart souffle) are more delicate because the sides of the souffle are where most of the structural support exists (the sides are cooked more and form a hard, but delicate, crust).
Long Time Lurker,
MissM
http://oncomputerstips.blogspot.com
Anyway, a fallen soufflé tastes almost as good-- it's denser and ends up tasting too rich, so go ahead and serve smaller portions with something else, like ice cream, and tell anyone who won't know better that it's fondant.
BTW, your capcha is pretty easy to break, even automatically. You might want to investigate upgrading it. Of course, the problem with good capchas is that even humans have a hard time, so as long as it's working for you, nevermind.
Feel free to triple and quadruple when a recipe says "can be doubled". (It's easier to understand than - can be multiplied.) The length of time it takes for your chocolate to melt, etc. will be different however, but as long as you use 6 oz. ramekins, the baking time should remain about the same (unless you're making 80 of these and the oven has multiple layers of cold souffles when you start baking...
as much as i lurrrrrve chocolate souffle, i was wondering if you have a recipe for "chocolate molten cake" instead? i would like to make one based on your recipe. :)
trist
I'll start experimenting...
The great thing about this recipe is preparing it before hand!
Thanks!
I have found the hardiest thing about making souffles, is fear. They are not that hard, but they are intimidating.
BTW, the first time, I made it in a gas oven and it was fine. Maybe because the ramekins are pretty small, the souffles were pretty sturdy.
I've made this recipe with the smaller ramekins countless times and it is the best. Good work :p
Thanks for the recipe. You illustrated well it and explained each step which was very helpful. I was wondering, if I wanted to make a plain Souffle could I use this recipe but omit the Chocolate mixture?
I'm gunna give it another try another time, it's not something you can eat often. Thanks.
Here's a picture
The first night, my maths had some extra so...we baked some in a larger dish and maybe too long so it was a bit dry. The next night, I made sauce and it tasted good tho it might not have needed sauce.
Thank you *very* much!
Lily
-Joyce
I like the whipped cream idea from a previous user...
The second time, my wife was home, and she showed me how to beat the egg whites correctly. We used Ghiradelli baking milk chocolate instead of dark chocolate, and the result was an excellent souffle that we and our friends enjoyed.
quick question, will it make a difference if we use milk chocolate instead of dark chocolate?
They are perfectly safe to eat if you store them in an airtight container at cool room temeprature for a day or two - but you'll never get the same rise out of it as you did when you first baked them. Reheating will cause the bubbles to inflate again, but not nearly as much as the first time. Reheat in the microwave or in the oven. (Microwave seems to actually work better for me, but make sure your ramekins are microwave safe).
In general, a reheated souffle will be noticed by your guests and is not the same experience, so prepare as many other dishes are you can before and plan the souffle to be pulled out of the oven minutes before serving.
There is a much higher fat (or similar substance that varies depending on quality) content in milk chocolate than in other darker chocolates. In short, the darker the chocolate, the less other stuff and the more cocoa. The fat will lend extra liquid to the recipe and nudge the end result towards being soupy. I believe that this is why 70% cocoa dark chocolate is specified. You could use a higher % cocoa content chocolate, although it is hard to find. You would want to add slightly more sugar to offset the increased bitterness. Always use quality chocolate as cheaper chocolates (like Hershey's) actually uses cocoa substitutes that take away from the deadly nature of the chocolate souffle.
I made the batter and put into the dishes ahead of time, refrigerated it for a couple of hours, then left it out to warm up before baking for about another hour and a half. The rise was good, and the results delicious!
Hard sauce is butter, softened at room temperature, with lots of sugar and brandy and a bit of vanilla whipped into it, and then put back in the refrigerator.
You can then put a little dollop of it on a hot dessert, and it melts and gives you a wonderful aroma and flavour and alcohol fumes.
Leftover hard sauce is also very good on toasted raisin bagels, or (if your leftovers last a long time) on Hot Cross Buns at Easter.
1 T butter
3 T regular sugar
4 T Cointreau
1 t Angostura bitters
Melt the butter in the pan, add the sugar and allow it to dissolve, stirring with a whisk. Add the cointreau and bitters, reduce the heat, cook slowly. I then removed it from the heat and let it sit while the souffle baked and we had dinner. All told it probably sat in the still-warm pan for about an hour. I think the alcohol cooked off as it tasted much more mellow in the end. I pooled this sauce on a plate and plopped my 2 little chocolate souffles on it, then dusted it all with a bit of confectioner's sugar (powdered sugar).
An alternative to the Cointreau would be orange extract, although the flavor would not be as complex and intriguing as it was with the cointreau.
The only problem was that I used a higher concentrate of chocolate, and being rather inexperienced at souffle's, I did not add any more sugar, so the results were very bitter. But my food teacher still liked it, so that's always a plus ^__^ & I now know that next time I'll stick with the 70% chocolate.
Thankyou very much for this recipe, it is very easy to follow and having the pictures is an excellent help ^-^
http://occasionalbaker.blogspot.com/
Cheers!
It's for two, but the recipe scales easily.
My substitutions were to use a simple store-bought Semi-Sweet Ghireldeli chocolate bar instead of 70% Bittersweet, although I do plan on trying it with a nice 70% chocolate now that I'm confident I can make this come out right. I also used vanilla sugar (made by keeping vanilla beans in a container with sugar) which I felt added a mellow vanilla taste that complimented the chocolate quite well.
I had significant problems beating the 2 egg whites in my kitchenaid which were solved by adding a 3rd egg white and a pinch of salt. I think there simply was not enough of the whites with only two eggs to physically fill the mixing bowl to the height that the whisk spins. Once the 3rd egg was in, it only took about 2 minutes for soft peaks and then another minute for stiff peaks to form.
My girlfriend is lactose intolerant, so I'm hoping that the roughly 1/2 oz. of heavy cream in the recipe won't be too much for her - do you have any suggestions for a good substitution though?
I poured a Creme Anglaise into the souffle after cooking. The Anglaise was modified with a fist-full of chips (I used the 60% Ghiardelli). I also used dashes of Grand Marnier and Godiva Liquors in the Anglaise.
Chocolate?
Egg yolk?
Sugar?
milk?
What if you add too little of each?
I am very hopeful that it will turn out alright... but have no idea.
if anyone has any experience w/ this please let me know! If it is a total disaster I will go buy some (albiet grudgingly!). I think the souffle dish i have woudl be a 4xrecipe size... so it will be 8 eggs, etc etc... quite large... it is for a lot of people and well, we'll see...
If no-one responds (which i hope they do!!!) I'll post my results... and if they do respond and i am encouraged to try it i'll post my results!! Could be interesting...
Thanks
Anne
:P
The purpose has been explained above, but as for what it is and where to find it -- cream of tartar is a white powder that you'll find in the baking aisle or spices section of most grocery stores. It's actually a biproduct of fermenting grape juice, so I don't know why they call it a "cream", but there you have it.
and also, is it ok to omit the cream of tartar?
Thanks.
and also, is it ok to omit the cream of tartar?
The easy one first - yes you can omit the cream of tartar. That helps you beat the eggs whites without overbeating / having them begin to collapse, but you can do it without the acid.
As to the cupcake liners, I don't know - never tried. Supposedly, ceramic ramekins are important due to several reasons. 1) They heat up slowly, 2) retain a lot of heat so they cool slowly, 3) have fluted sides so they have more surface area to absorb heat (this seems like it's probably not going to contribute too much).
We used Baker's bittersweet chocolate and found it extremely chocolatey - any suggestions for how to turn down the chocolate?
It is the butter.