Chocolate Souffle

I love a good generous chocolate souffle. It is really quick to prepare, and cooks quickly too. And it is deliciouuuuuus.  I prefer the souffle family version or sharing version, that it in a big tall round dish.  This is a personal taste, some may prefer the individual ramequins.  This recipe is from a French magazine called “ricardo cuisine“, I have adapted the recipe (essentially removed the sugar, it is not necessary).

For a successful souffle (any souffle, not just chocolate), there are a few rules to follow:

1. Do NOT open the oven door while the souffle is cooking. The sudden drop of temperature is very likely to make your souffle collapse and it will not rise again.  when you check for donesness, do it quickly and do not remove the dish from the oven
2. Serve you souffle as soon as possible once out of the oven because it always deflates a little and seeing the souffle change shape is fun too!
3. The souffle needs either to be baked in ramequins or in a large dish with tall vertical edges, what is important is that the width is about 1.5 size the height of the sides, not much more, and the sides must be vertical.
4. Make sure your egg whites are well beaten and inserted without breaking them i.e. they need to be folded in, not mixed in!

For a chocolate souffle. there are a few ways to go about it.  Here, there is nothing very technical, so all good. Choose a good quality cooking chocolate, a 55-60% cocoa is best if the souffle is also for children, otherwise feel free to use 70% cocoa cooking chocolate.

Ingredients:

• 140 g dark cooking chocolate
• 3 medium eggs
• 125 mL of milk
• 1 tbsp corn flour
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
• A nut of butter and caster sugar for the dish

Method:

1. Butter the dish and coat over with caster sugar.
2. Heat up the oven to 180°C.
3. Separate the egg white and egg yolks. Mix the cornflour and cream of tartar with the egg yolks.
4. In a saucepan, melt the chocolate in the milk.  As it is melted, remove from the fire and mix and add in the cornflour/eggyolk mix.
5. Beat the eggwhites until firm. Add to the chocolate mix and gently fold in. Transfer to the tin.
6. Bake for 15 minutes or until the top of the souffle is steady when gently poked and cracks have appeared on the top.  If you want it not so oozy in the centre, allow for a little longer.
7. Serve immediately but be careful, it is hot!

Tip: if there are left overs, keep those at room temperature for the next day!  (not in the fridge please).