Souffle Day

I have to say I was very nervous about souffle day. Souffles have always seemed so intimidating and the popular portrayal of them as delicate creations that collapse if you look at them wrong. They are finicky don't get me wrong, but they aren't nearly as difficult as I had expected.

We made three different souffles: a chocolate souffle, a fruit souffle, and a savory souffle (in that order). My favorite was the chocolate--not just because it was chocolate, though that helped--my least favorite was the fruit.  I'm going to explain them in reverse order of preference, so I'll save the best for last.

Raspberry souffles piped normally

We had a choice of raspberry or passion fruit for the fruit souffle. My partner and I chose raspberry, which gave the souffle a lovely pale pink hue, not to mention a nice raspberry taste. These souffles rose beautifully and looked really impressive and the berry flavor was nice. The problem was the texture; they were a bit gummy. They were gummy because they have a relatively large amount of pectin in them, which makes them very stable so they rise well. So I guess it's a trade off. I might try them again with a little less pectin, see if I can find a happy medium. By the way, because this is a relatively stiff batter (do you call it batter for a souffle? I'm not sure) we could pipe it above the rim of the ramekin. You see, typically souffle molds (ramekins or another oven safe container) are filled to the top, but not above. That gives souffles their flat top and, if done correctly, their straight necks. With these we made some the classic way, as pictured above, and some a less traditional way. We piped piles of swirled souffle mixture (perhaps that's a better term than batter) on top of a traditional souffle before baking it. That way they looked like a fancy and really impressive twist on a cupcake:

We served them with creme anglaise and chocolate sauce.

Smoked Salmon Souffle

The savory souffle we made was really flexible. It is a béchamel sauce base so you can flavor it however you want. We could use cheese or smoked salmon. I opted for the salmon because I love it but I don't get it very often. It cooks a little bit in the souffle which is nice, especially for some of my classmates who didn't like the texture of fresh smoked salmon.  It was quite good, but mine didn't rise as much as I would have liked, it just sort of domed instead. Ah well. We served them with a small side salad, yum!

Chocolate souffle with the chocolate sauce poured in.

Finally, the chocolate souffle. This was amazing. They tasted almost like a rich chocolate brownie, with a texture something like a mousse-y, molten chocolate cake. They didn't get as much hight as the fruit souffles, but they did rise nicely. We served them with whipped cream and chocolate sauce. Traditionally, just before eating the souffle you (or the server who brings it) cut a hole in the top of a souffle and pour the sauce in. It's really good! The barely sweet, slightly vanilla-y, cool whipped cream was delicious with the rich, sweet, warm, dark chocolate souffle. I'm so happy with souffle day!