I make chocolate souffles, and they are light and airy and therefore not very chocolate-y. I've had better luck with doing a peppermint souffle with choc chips!

Souffles are easy. My standard recipe for random flavours is 50 ml of strongly flavoured thick white sauce made with a roux (can be a cheese sauce, or you can flavour with sugar, scraped vanilla bean or essences, add ground nuts, etc) to 2 egg whites. (My chocolate souffle is different and I'd have to find the recipe - it's chocolate melted into milk, egg yolks added and thickened with cornflour. Let me know if you want the recipe.)

Audrey

If you would post that and the peppermint w/ choc. chips, that would be most excellent. Thanks!

+1

In anticipation, I think I'll go and buy some eggs! :)

Sorry it's taken me so long!

Simple Chocolate Souffle
25 g cornflour
250 ml milk
100 g good dark chocolate
50 g sugar
3 egg yolks
5 egg whites
1 tablespoon extra sugar, caster if available.

Mix cornflour to a thin paste with some of the milk.

Put the remaining milk in a saucepan with the chocolate and sugar, and stir over a gentle heat until the chocolate melts and the sugar dissolves.

Add cornflour paste carefully and bring mixture to boil to thicken, stirring continuously, then remove from heat.

Beat in egg yolks one by one, and leave mixture to cool slightly. (You can prepare in advance this far and if needed warm the mixture slightly before continuing.)

Beat egg whites until they begin to stand in soft peaks, then add extra sugar and beat until the mixture stands in stiff peaks but is not dry.

Gently fold egg whites into chocolate mixture, and immediately pour into greased and sugared 1 litre souffle dish, and bake at 190 degrees celsius for 40 - 45 minutes. Serve immediately.


As noted, it's mostly air so is not intensely chocolatey. If you want intensely chocolatey you need my ultimate chocolate cake recipe - that meets the spec! ('d have to check the exact recipe, but it's goes along the lines of 1 lb dark chocolate, 0.5 lb butter, eggs, a spoon of sugar and a spoon of flour, baked for about 15 minutes, then chilled in the tin and melted out of it. This cake will melt if left out on a warm day.... if anyone wants the recipe I am going to have to find it. Can't remember the ratio of chocolate to butter to egg.)

And here's my generic souffle recipe:

Almond Souffle

I looked in all my books, and couldn't find any recipes at all. So, I decided that a proportion of 50 ml bechamel per egg would be OK. it was. :+>

100 ml thick white sauce, made from a fairly dry roux.
2 egg whites, stiffly beaten
1 oz ground almonds (optional)
1 tablespoon sugar
few drops of almond essence, to taste

Mix the white sauce with the almonds, sugar and essence. Fold in eggwhites gently. Pour into two individual souffle moulds.

Put into oven that has been preheated to 240 degrees, and immediately turn heat down to 190 degrees. When it looks well risen (about 10 minutes) turn oven up to maximum to brown top.

When brown eat.

Very light and fluffy and delicate. And easy to make - just pinch a bit of white
sauce from another dish to use in this.


White Sauce:
Melt about a tablespoon of butter in a saucepan, add a tablespoon of flour, cook briefly while stirring, mixed. Add a small dash of milk, mix until smooth and thick, add another dash of milk, mix until smooth and not as thick, etc. One tablespoon of flour will generally thicken about 1 tablespoon of milk.

This recipe can be varied in many ways. The almond meal can be omitted and replaced with scraped vanilla bean, or a tablespoon of green creme de menthe which will give a pleasant green colour. Other liqueurs could be used. Very small chocolate chips can be added to create a chocolate chip souffle (if the chips sink to the bottom they were too big - experiment!). The souffle can be made more exciting by adding small pieces of sponge cake in the bottom of the souffle dish, soaked in brandy or liqueur. The milk in the sauce can be partly substituted with fruit juice or fruit puree. The sauce can be flavoured with melted cheese and the sugar omitted to make a cheese souffle.

A hole can be made in the top of the souffle and a sauce poured in - I prefer to do this with individual souffles and guests making their own hole and pouring in their sauce from a small jug.

A couple of my favourite combinations:

Almond choc chip.
Mint choc chip
Apple souffle with brandy soaked sponge in bottom

And using the previous chocolate souffle recipe:
Chocolate souffle with raspberry sauce
Chocolate souffle with vanilla custard (home made from left over egg yolks)

Audrey

Thanks for all that! Just one more question - how large are the individual souffles you make? This morning, I was at a chef's kitchen type place and saw individual ramekins in at least 4 oz., 6 oz., 8 oz, 10 oz., and 10.5 oz. sizes, if not more. I purchased some 10 oz., but these are probably better for savory souffles - a little large for sweet ones (for anyone but me! :D)!

Golly, I'll have to check! Pretty sure they are 4" across - they're standard ramekins. I've never seen the need for taller dishes for souffles.

Audrey

Since your profile shows you as being located in MEL, you might want to try the souffles at the European restaurant on Spring St (across from Parliament). Fantastic (as good as the best in Paris, ime). Flavours rotate monthly, but they make a great intense chocolate souffle and also a wild strawberry one (when they can get fraise du bois).

Magic souffle moment
 

Time out for a very significant soufflé moment. On our first trip to Paris, we visited Laperousse and at the time was a Michelin 2*or possibly 3*. The restaurant was known for its "discreet" salons. This was in the early 1970's and I was with a very young man. As well, he was with a very young woman. Did I mention that we were married to each other?
One dessert offered was a "fresh raspberry soufflé. So many years later and so many desserts later and yet, we will never forget our soufflé at Laperousse, in one of the salons prive.
Sometimes a soufflé is about the timing and the presentation. Sorry to burst anyone's egg whites.

Nice story - as long as nothing fell. :)

OK, for the Americans, I converted this. Anyone who is good at this, please check to see if I did it right. :)

3 T cornstarch
1 cup milk
3 1/2 oz good dark chocolate
4 T sugar
3 egg yolks
5 egg whites
1 tablespoon extra fine sugar, if available

And the oven temp. is 375. :)

I just realized that it looks like falconea left a step out - there is no mention made, after beating the eggwhites, of folding them into the chocolate mixture

I know where I can get twin yolk eggs, but where do I find the double white eggs? :)

;)

should that be 4 T sugar?
You can put granulated sugar in a food processor/blender to make it finer for caster sugar.

^