My First Soufflé!

Happy Easter! Let's talk about eggs, baby, let's talk about you and me...

Soufflés - they are generally invoked as an illustration of incredibly difficult cooking. All the jokes about falling soufflés and not peeking are enough to put off a skittish cook.

I knit on occasion too, and find some patterns to be written in gobbledygook, but my mother assures me if I just follow the instructions step by step, there is no reason I should not be able to knit a cardigan.

The sweater still eludes me, but I applied this same straightforward principle to a Barefoot Contessa recipe for blue cheese soufflé. I had just bought an eight-cup straight-sided ramekin and couldn't wait to get started.

My soufflé story in pics:

Ina Garten's Blue Cheese Soufflé

Ingredients:

3 tbsp unsalted butter

1/4 cup grated parm

3 tbsp all-purpose flour

1 cup scalded milk

salt and pepper

pinch of cayenne

pinch of nutmeg

4 egg yolks, room temp

3 oz blue cheese, chopped

5 egg whites, room temp

1/8 tsp cream of tartar

8 cup souffle dish

Preheat the oven to 400 º.

Butter the inside of dish and sprinkle with parm (I found out later after reading another soufflé recipe that you need to sprinkle the cheese all the way up the sides; apparently, the eggs use particles of cheese or sugar or whatever to climb up the sides of the ramekin and "souffle" up over the sides of the dish).

Melt the 3T butter over stove, then stir in flour and cook for 2 mins.

Off the heat, whisk in hot milk, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper, cayenne, nutmeg. Cook over low heat, whisking, until smooth and thick.

Off the heat again, while still hot, whisk in the egg yolks one at a time. Stir in the Roquefort (we used a Danish blue) and the 1/4 cup of Parm and transfer to a large mixing bowl.

Put the egg whites, cream of tartar, and a pinch of salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk. Beat on low speed for 1 min, medium for 1 min, then on high until firm and glossy peaks form (as someone who has not worked a lot with eggs, recognizing the point at which to stop was a bit of a crap shoot).

Whisk one quarter of the egg whites into the cheese sauce to lighten and then fold in the rest. Pour into the soufflé dish, then smooth the top. Draw a large circle on top with the spatula to help it rise evenly, and place in the middle of the oven.

(n.b. - glass of wine will facilitate the making of the soufflé)


Turn down to 375 º. Cook for 30-35 minutes WITHOUT PEEKING as we all know what happens when you peek at a souffle. It gets really shy and collapses in on itself. It falls due to the draft from the oven door and / or the sudden temperature change (I can't remember if one of these is a myth or not). As I have read somewhere (Cookwise?), eggs, although they have magical properties, only rise once. They are not double-leavening, so once it collapses, it's not going to rise again.

I don't think I would risk making a soufflé if I had an unreliable oven, but my gas oven is always spot-on temperature-wise, so I left it in without peeking for 37 minutes - until it smelled done and slightly browned.

And then, the moment had arrived.

3 - 2 - 1


Voilà!!


WHEEEEE!!!

WHEEEEE!!!!!

It's so pretty, non? I was just floored when it came out like that. If you want to be picky, I think it's supposed to have a flat top and not a big beautiful dome like this one does, but again, I think this is because we didn't sprinkle cheese up the side of the dish.

It was rich and comforting, and the amount of blue cheese was enough to give it a kick, but light enough that it did not deter non-blue cheese enthusiasts like my husband. It's so rich, though, I would make this for four people and serve with a salad.