Rise and Shine!

To rise and to shine...Well that was the goal but I didn't succeed at it that well. The challenge for the month of November for daring cooks was a souffle. I had never made one but growing up I had them all the time. My childhood best friends parents made an egg souffle about once a week for dinner and they were always so good and fluffy. I always dreamed that I would make one as good as Christine Bickson would make but she must of had the "touch" that i don't :-(

I wanted to make a savory souffle since this was a daring cooks challenge and not a daring bakers challenge but I was hosting a dinner and needed to conquer this souffle so what better time than to test on my friends and make them eat my experiment.

I made a chocolate souffle, and as always, I changed the recipe up a little bit from what they told me. It wasn't a big change, but it may have been the culprit of what mess the whole thing up! Instead of buying dark chocolate I decided to use the semi-sweet chocolate chips from the 5 lb bag i already have... I prefer things a little sweeter so I didn't think it would change the recipe that much.

Anyway, the final product tasted fine but i always remembered it being much fluffier and not like a cake texture. I have posted the recipe below.... hope fully it is a much better product for you than me!
GOOD LUCK


Just the cocoa powder that lined the souffle dishes

  Chocolate Souffle

FOR THE DISHES:
2 tbsp unsalted butter
cocoa powder

FOR THE CREME PATISSERIE
2 tbsp flour
2 tsp caster sugar (super fine sugar)
1/2 tsp corn starch
1 medium egg yolk
1 medium whole egg
4 tbsp milk
5 tbsp heavy cream
3 oz dark chocolate (this is where i used semi-sweet chocolate chips)
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

FOR THE EGG WHITES

poppin them in the oven


6 medium egg whites
6 1/2 tbsp caster sugar

Directions:

1. heat oven to 375 degrees
2. Take four 1 cup souffle dishes and brush them with softened butter. tip a little cocoa powder into each dish, roll the dish around tilting it as you do so it is evenly lined all around.
3. For the creme patisserie, mix the flour, sugar, and corn starch into a small bowl. Put egg yolk and whole egg into a medium sized bowl, beat lightly, then beat in half the flour mixture to give a smooth paste. Tip in the rest of the flour mixture and the cocoa powder and mix well.
4. To make the ganache, pour the milk and cream into a pan and bring just to the boil. Remove from the heat. Ass the chocolate and beat until it is melted and smooth with no lumps.
5. Gradually stir hot chocolate ganache into the paste from step 3. This is your creme patisserie.
6. Whisk the egg whites to soft peaks with an electric whisk. Sprinkle in the sugar as you are mixing. Keep whisking to give stiff, firm peaks to give volume to souffles.

Out and sunken already :-(

7. Stir about 2 tbsp of the beaten egg whites in the creme patisserie. Carefully fold in a third of the rest, cutting through the mixture. Fold in another third (take care not to lose the volume), then fold in the rest.
8. Spoon the mixture in to the dishes and makes sure the surface is flat and even. Wipe away any excess around the dish, as it will burn while cooking.
9. It suggests to bake the souffles for 15-17 minutes but i am suggesting to bake a little less like 13 minutes. that way it will be a little softer in the middle and will be more like a molten cake. so when they are done they should be set on the top, jiggle a little, and rise about 2/3rds.

Well there you have it! That is the recipe I followed along with my picture documentary. I bet with a little more attention and a little less wine and not hosting a dinner party,  it would have been DELICIOUS!