Vanilla Soufflé

This soufflé is heavenly divine!! Every spoonful of this delicate, soft, warm and mousse-like cake warms your heart and sets your heart a flutter.

A soufflé is a sweet or savory French creation that is served straight from a hot oven. It is a lightly baked cake made with egg yolks and beaten egg whites combined with various other ingredients.

Soufflés rise due to the magic qualities of eggs. A basic savory soufflé contains béchamel sauce or a purée bound with egg yolks and folded into stiffly beaten whites (meringue) that trap air and allow the soufflé both to expand with the heat of the oven and deflate in the open air after about 5 minutes. Hence it is vital that you do not open the oven door while these babies are baking or the bakes will be a disaster.

I've made a sweet Vanilla Soufflé from Eugenie's recipe. Do use quality ingredients as it really makes a huge difference to the final taste of the soufflé.

Vanilla Soufflé

makes 4 ramekins

Ingredients:

1 tbspn unsalted butter (14g)

1 tbspn all-purpose flour (10g)

1/2 cup milk, hot (120 ml)

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbspn sugar (30g)

2 eggs, medium-sized, seperated

Pinch of salt

Confectioners’ sugar for dusting

Additional butter and sugar to prepare the ramekins

Method:

Prepare the ramekins

1. Brush the ramekins with butter from bottom upwards. This will make the soufflé rise evenly. Then, coat the ramekins with sugar. Shake out any excess sugar. Set aside.

Make béchamel sauce (white sauce)

2. On medium heat, melt butter in a sauce pan. Add in the flour and with a wooden spoon stir for about 1 minute. This is white roux.

3. Remove the pan from the heat. Gradually add hot milk and stir until smooth and combined. Back to medium heat, stir constantly until it comes to a boil. The sauce should form ribbons. This is white sauce. Remove from the heat.

4. Add in salt and vanilla extract and stir until combined. Separate the egg white and egg yolk and add in the egg yolks one by one and stir to combine. The sauce pan is still warm, so pour the sauce into a separate bowl to prevent unwanted evaporation. Set aside.

Make French meringue 

5. Whisk egg whites until soft peaks form. Add sugar and keep whisking until stiff peaks form. This is French meringue.

Combine white sauce and French meringue 

6. Add about 1/3 of the French meringue into the white sauce and whisk until well combined. Then, pour all white sauce into meringue and whisk until just combined. Be careful not to deflate the delicate meringue. 

Fill the ramekins 

7. Spoon the mixture into the ramekins. Run thumb around inside of rim. This will help the soufflé to rise straight.

Bake

8. Bake in preheated oven at 200ºC for 12 - 15 minutes or until well risen.

Serve

9. When done, place on a plate because ramekins are very hot.

10. Dust with confectioners’ sugar and serve immediately out of oven.

Note:

1. Use good quality ingredients.

2. Do not open the oven doors when baking.

3. Serve immediately as the soufflés will deflate when out of the oven.

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