Fundamentally a souffle comprises a well flavoured base (in this case creme patissiere) into which egg whites are gently folded. As the souffle cooks the air in the egg white expands with the heat, making the souffle rise.
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| Everything ready |
I think the trick of making a souffle is making sure everything is prepared and ready to go before starting to cook. Once that's done it's pretty easy really - although these could have done with being left in the oven for a couple more minutes.
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| Oven Ready |
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| Done |
The recipe I used was Mary Berry's http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/mary_berrys_lovely_lemon_73914 and it works as does the chocolate version http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/hot_chocolate_souffle_95703
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| Hot Lemon Mousse |
Ingredients:
A little melted butter
Zest and juice of 2 lemons
2 egg yolks
4 egg whites
6 rounded tablespoons caster sugar
3 rounded teaspoons corn flour
1 rounded teaspoon plain flour
90 ml double cream
110 ml milk
Icing sugar for dusting
Method:
Melt a little butter and brush it around the sides and base of the ramekins, then coat with caster sugar and put the ramekins in the fridge.
Mix together the zest and juice of the lemons and leave to one side.
Separate the eggs and add 2 additional egg whites. Mix the caster sugar together with the 2 egg yolks into a thick paste. In a separate bowl mix together the cornflour, plain flour and double cream.
Heat the milk until just boiling. Whisk a little milk to the flour mixture to loosen it a little and get rid of any lumps. Whisk in the rest of the milk and then put the mixture back into the pan. whisk over a low heat until the mixture begins to thicken. Take the pan off the heat and add the egg and sugar mixture and then the lemon juice and zest. Put the pan back on the heat and whisk until the mixture begins to boil. Take off the heat and allow to cool.
When the flavoured base is cool heat the oven to 180 C and put a tray into the oven to heat up.
Whisk the four egg whites until they reach the soft peak stage. Mix in a spoonful of the egg white to loosen the lemon mixture then gently fold in the rest until there are no white streaks remaining in the mixture.
Fill the ramekins with the souffle mixture and level the top with a palette knife. Run a thumbnail around the edge so the souffle doesn't get caught on the rim as it rises.
Put the souffles in the oven and pray.
Take the souffles out when they have risen and turning brown on the top. Dust with icing sugar.
We ate these with orange tuilles which added some nice contrast of texture.
