I made a soufflé

You’re BANANAS, you know that?!?

Never knew why so many people find making soufflé intimidating. It's not that hard.

What kind OP? Cheese, chocolate, grand marnier?

I know people will think I am making this up, but I used to sometimes serve individual prune soufflés for dessert at a dinner party.

The prunes stew for a bit in red wine and sugar then get processed in a food processor.

I would serve them with a Grand Marnier crème anglaise.

Perhaps I should share the recipe here.

[quote]r3 What kind, OP? Cheese, chocolate, grand marnier?

Cheese. I just used sharp cheddar because that’s what was on hand.

I did this unwhipped variation the day before, as a dry run. This was also very good. It just doesn’t have that unique, airy texture, or rise as much.

[quote]Perhaps I should share the recipe here.

Must you?

You just fold in the cheese

[quote] Must you?

Yes, R6, I must.

You alone just convinced me to.

Your response should be ‘thank you’—it’s a great recipe.

[quote] r2 Never knew why so many people find making soufflé intimidating. It's not that hard.

It’s because ruined soufflés are such a staple of sitcoms.

Also, I don’t think soufflés are a staple of middle class cooking. My working, single mom never made them. So maybe a lot of people just didn’t grow up eating them and so consider them a “fancy” food. And people assume fancy = difficult.

I have a full box of mangoes so Greg should post a mango recipe.

That Jacques Pepin video at R5 - I think he doesn't even separate the yolks from the whites. It's the souffle recipe that his mom taught him.

Yes. I said it’s an upwhipped variation. The whites do not get whipped.

Good for you, OP,

Individual souffles in ramekins are less intimidating than a big souffle and are easier to serve. I learned how to make egg, cheese and chocolate souffles from watching Julia Child. You separate the eggs, beat the whites with a hand mixer, make the base with the yolks, fold in the whites, and transfer to a souffle dish with an aluminum foil ring attached to let the top of the souffle climb upward.

They're so rich that they don't particularly appeal to me anymore. Lots of classic French dishes now taste too rich and a little bland but Julia was great for teaching basic technique.

I learned how to make cheese soufflés in the 1975 trade paperback edition of Joy of Cooking. It was simple, and the only time I ever had a problem was when using an electric stove. The soufflé didn’t rise as much as usual because of the overhead heating element. Somehow I lost my soufflé dish, so I haven’t made one in years.

What I learned from reading the various soufflé recipes:

You want the milk to be hot when you add it to the roux, as cold milk will cause the butter to solidify and maybe make the béchamel sauce grainy. You can also add this hot milk all at once. (Before, I’d pour it in about 1/2 cup at a time when making macaroni and cheese, as that’s how the Joy of Cooking instructs you to do that step… but I guess it doesn’t matter.)

You want to cool this sauce somewhat before adding the egg yolks, or they might scramble. You can start by adding some of the warm sauce to the egg yolks first, raising their temperature a bit, then pour that mixture back into the sauce. (I think this is called tempering the eggs.)

There's a place in San Francisco / North Beach called Cafe Jacqueline. Their menu consists of dinner souffles and dessert souffles. It's still open! I can't believe it. Now, the gruyere souffle (for 2) is $55. I guess that's not bad for 2 people. The chocolate souffle (serves 2 to 4) is $57.

The souffles I make are never simple. It's all about bringing the eggs and other ingredients to room temp and perfectly separating the yolks from the whites and carefully beating the whites in a copper bowl into Stiff Peaks for 37 minutes, then delicately folding them into the other twee ingredients or else you'll die painfully. You bake the thing in a bain marie in a perfectly tempered oven in a buttered $4,780 cerise-couloured Souffle dish from Sur La Table, but not on a too humid day, and the house must be totally silent. If the cat meows, you must sacrifice it to the Souffle Goddess.

The only time my mother ever seriously threatened me physically was when she was making several souffles in c.1971 while sipping on Grand Mariner, as me and my little third-grade friends terrorized the house. I still have her hardbound copy of "The Joy Of Cooking" from the early 1960s with her notes, and memories of watching Julia Child and The Galloping Gourmet on KQED/PBS on our black and white TV. She worked full time, raised five kids, was a phenomenal chef and fag hag, miss her.

My Meyer Lemon Pudding Cakes (souffles in individual ramekins) would cut a bitch.

[quote] carefully beating the whites in a copper bowl into Stiff Peaks for 37 minutes

Beating egg whites for 37 minutes?

r17 = why DL needs downvoting.

I thought R17 was mocking that recipe creature.

Fuck off, R20.

Thomas Keller beats his whites for three days.

They are luxurious.

Thank you Op - because of you and this thread I fell down the soufflé rabbit hole last night googling cheese soufflé recipes. I have never made one but now I have become a little obsessed about it ….. it also made me think of Audrey Hepburn in “Sabrina” struggling with her soufflés!

Greg, wow - you really are nothing more than just a cunt.

[quote] Greg, wow - you really are nothing more than just a cunt.

Now why, R24, would you say such a thing?

OP, I think you and I would get along really well in real life.

R24, you just realizing that? I blocked it ages ago for boring, prosy posts and seething cuntery when called out on its games.

I’m so surprised not to have noticed R27’s absence.

Usually when the neighborhood sniveller pouts and sulks away, I take notice.

[quote]r26 OP, I think you and I would get along really well in real life.

Thank you : ) That is very sweet to say.

For the rest, I shall continue my Soufflé Safari below… my dreams, my failures, the hard won lessons, the tips and tricks…

————————————

Shockingly, though I look a mere 39, I am a bit older. Nothing reminded me more of this fact than when I zoned out and got confused separating the (many) eggs. There are specific steps and you may end up with a lot of dishes to wash.

If the sauce is still cooling, you need three bowls. You separate the first egg over the middle bowl, which should end up holding only 1 egg white at a time. You dump the egg yolk from that shell into one of the other bowls, then transfer the white from the middle bowl into the last, empty bowl. (Whichever 2 bowls you’re using for the whites have to start out completely dry.)

So now you have your middle bowl empty again. The benefit of this is if you break the yolk when cracking the next egg, or separating it, you’re not going to contaminate and waste your growing egg white collection, which will only really whip correctly without any yolk (or water) in them.

So anyway, repeat all those division steps as above.

You could use the cooled saucepan of sauce as the bowl for the yolks, as that’s what they’ll eventually be whisked into - but having the separate bowl for yolks lets you easily check for any bits of shell that might have got in there.

Maybe I should write a book: [italic]My Soufflé Awakenings.[/italic] Something like that.

R27 also thinks that “The Wizard of Oz” is “very over-rated” — and therefore is not to be trusted.

He is weak and whiny.

My friends - our soufflés will not rise with snipings and bitterness in the air.

I encourage you to embrace one another as Sweet Soufflé Sisters.

R29, as you become more experienced and confident, making a souffle will seem like second nature. An important step is to take out everything you're going to need before cooking and prep the ingredients. For example, grate the cheese and separate the eggs in the beginning.

Always read the recipe several times and if you can, print it out.

Settle down, OP. It’s not that hard.

r27, admittedly, I am a slow learner. Mom used to make her Souffles in cheap clay bowls that she bought across the border in Tijuana. They were probably lined with lead paint.

Have tried to be supportive of Greg, which proved to be a waste of time.

[quote] Greg, wow - you really are nothing more than just a cunt.

I honestly don’t know what prompted that.

I believe you misread something above.

You really should be upset with R19, not me.

I said nothing about you.

Still waiting for R27/R24 to tell me why she’s so upset with me.

Having never addressed her, directly or indirectly, I simply cannot imagine the cause.

Souffles are very temperamental once in the oven. If you open the door too early to see if they're cooked, it can lead to disaster. If you slam the oven door, as Phyllis does to Sue Ann, it's all over.

Paired with a simple salad, cheese soufflé is the perfect holiday lunch.

Similar to crab cakes, it feels like a treat to have a cheese soufflé, a salad, and a crisp white wine.

Yum!

Last month I had my friends over for lunch on a Sunday. I bought some Chinese food tonight before and they loved the Chinese food and I decided to make something homemade for dessert to accompany the Chinese meal. I made my almond torte – they loved it. My friend and I said - it was superb!

Not a fan of almond. Orange would have been better imo R41.

R40- Are you a FAT WHORE Greg?

You consume very high fat , high calorie foods.

No, R43, I’m not.

You are the one who is addicted to sweets and who eats polenta lasagne.

A cheese soufflé does not contain a lot of calories and fat.

I eat in moderation.

And you? Are you overweight?

[quote] Last month I had my friends over for lunch on a Sunday. I bought some Chinese food tonight before and they loved the Chinese food and I decided to make something homemade for dessert to accompany the Chinese meal. I made my almond torte – they loved it. My friend and I said - it was superb!

Do you mean that you purchased Chinese food “the night” before?

What a shitty meal, if I’m being honest.

Leftover take away Chinese food and an almond torte?

🤮

Also, R41, you really should take an English class for the learning disabled.

Read your post and see what an embarrassment it is.

Pathetic.

This Saturday reminds me of how sometimes I think that this whole website is set up just so people that know me know that I will comment on here and gather dirt on me or just mess with me or something I don't know.

Like today when this idiot at work was showing off his stupid chocolate raspberry cake he made and then it made me think of how somebody posted a picture one saying their boyfriend made it for them or some s*** here.

You sound like trouble, R47.

Greg, regarding your post at r22, really? How could he possibly? I mean if anyone would do that it would be Thomas Keller, but if true, wow! I looked at his Chocolate Souffle recipe and he takes pains to advise not to over-whisk the whites.

R49, it was a joke, playing off of R17.

Now I want to whip egg whites for three days and see what happens

Damnit, OP -you let my secret out of the bag! I've been taking accolades for my souffles for years -and now you go telling everyone that they aren't hard to make at all. After all the hard work those early sitcoms put in, filling people's heads with myths about how hard they are to make and how fragile they are in the oven... It's all falling down around my like.. like a sitcom souffle! At least no one will ever get my secret ingredient, sage-infused darby cheese, from me. I'll guard that one to my grave!

Eww, R47 chocolate raspberry combination. Not good. I loathe chocolate with fruit. Both fruit and chocolate are sweet enough on their own. Thrown together it's too much.

I love chocolate with coffee and plain cream fillings.

I dislike chocolate and orange, but I very much like chocolate and raspberry.

I could have typed r54. Raspberries are my favorite fruit. They play nicely with chocolate. I make a flourless chocolate cake (Michael's of Santa Monica) that I serve with a raspberry coulis and whipped cream. Haagen-Dazs made a raspberry/dark chocolate ice cream sometime prior to 2009 that they should have made a standard flavor.

R55 - now I want to try all of the chocolate and raspberry stuff that you mentioned. Damn - it’s late. The only sweet in the refrigerator is apple sauce …..

I prefer a mousse over a souffle

Whip egg whites for three days and all you’d be left with would be air. They wouldn’t have any moisture left in them. Whatever was left of them wouidn’t be luxurious. They’d be like dried egg white flakes.

^^^ Oh, come on and just say it: three-day-whipped egg whites would look like dried cum.

R57 I do too. Particularly when it comes to chocolate.