Baking 101 : Chocolate Soufflé

This is one of the things that I was determined to try for this year and I made it!! yeay!! :e

High rise soufflé :)

The recipe taken from here but I modified to how much I need, also the technical parts are taken from some other recipes that I have seen.

Here goes: I used measurement in RED

Chocolate Soufflé
Ingredients (serves 6) (2)

• 200g good-quality dark chocolate, chopped (80 gm)
• 100g butter, chopped (40 gm)
• 2/3 cup dark brown sugar (1/4 cup)
• 5 eggs, at room temperature, separated (2 eggs)
• 2 tablespoons plain flour (¾ tbsp)
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder (3/4 tbsp)
• 1/4 cup caster sugar (2 tbsp)
• thickened cream and icing sugar mixture, to serve

Method
1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
2. Grease 3 pieces of 2cm deep, 3.5cm (diameter) ramekin with butter on the side to the brim and sprinkle some castor sugar to the sides.
3. Combine chocolate and butter in a metal bowl, melt the mixture via double boiler method. Stir every minute with a metal spoon, until almost melted. Stir until smooth. Stir in brown sugar. Set aside for 10 minutes to cool.
4. Beat egg yolks with a fork to combine. Stir into chocolate mixture. Sift flour and cocoa together over chocolate mixture. Stir to combine. Using an electric mixer, beat eggwhites until soft peaks form. Add caster sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until thick and glossy.
5. Add 1 tablespoon eggwhite to chocolate mixture. Mix well. Using a large metal spoon, gently fold in remaining eggwhite. Spoon mixture into prepared ramekin (at least ¾ full) . Bake for 15 minutes or until the batter has risen from the brim.
6. Dust with icing sugar. Serve warm with cream. (I did not... :D just dig in!!)

One might ask, what is the toughest part in making a soufflé? My answer would be, getting the ramekin!! I was searching high and low in KL but could not find any. I tried IKEA, the Curve (OU je tak sempat). Last week after Spanish class I drop by MV and tried Carrefour, nope, none that I can see. Then I tried Jusco, voila...there's the whole bunch of it :) And I settled for the small ones, 3.5 cm diameter ramekin. There is a smaller one but I guess any souffle made in that size would invites anger due to chocolate deficiency...  :r



So next challenge is getting the soft peak. I did not own any type of mixer apart from what Allah has given me (my two hands....  :O ) So I was beating my life away to get the egg whites to form the soft peak, and this is how it turns out.

Nampak tak the two peaks?

 Next, after gently (ohh..saya memang bersopan santun waktu tu) folding in the eggwhites to the chocolate sauce, what else, baking time :f I was pacing back and forth in front of the oven to see how much it has risen.


Naik lagi dan lagi....

Its finally done!! To be honest, I have never tasted soufflé before anywhere, so I would not know how to compare. I guess for chocolatey taste, yes, it was good because it was not sweet. But for the texture am not so sure, seemes like I overbake the soufflé. The next day I consulted my boss (yes, he's a pastry chef), he mentioned a good soufflé by mat salleh's definition should be runny and saucy on the inside...aahhh...now I know. So I guess next time, I should reduce the baking time to 13 minutes? ;)