I Feel Fancy 'Cause We Made Souffles Today

I guess I should just call this Egg Week, because today we had egg souffle day and oy vey was it tiring. Don't get me wrong, the four hours of class went fast but sheesh, there was a lot of whisking, a lot of praying, and a lot little souffles to sample around the kitchen. And, tomorrow will be more of the same because since today all of our recipes were for souffles made without flour and tomorrow we are making souffles with flour...

So, souffles; apparently the word originates from a French word that literally means "to blow up" and that is exactly what the whipped egg whites in souffles do when heated. Now everyone in our class was very worried about what would happen as each and every person opened the oven to place their trays of souffles in because as we all know, you must be very careful when baking souffles because any movement or disturbance of air that is anywhere near the little ramekin while it is baking is kryptonite for the souffle's magical rising powers...but we were wrong. Our chef said that those myths that we have all heard about souffles are totally incorrect and she was right. We opened and closed the oven doors numerous times, hell, I even took my tray out for a few minutes and not a single souffle fell. Eggs are kind of miraculous that way I guess and I know it was a big ego boost for myself and my fellow classmates to have such healthy looking souffles all class long.

I won't bore you with the details of every souffle that we made because some of them weren't even that good...like the banana souffle that smelled lovely and tasted way to moist and banana-y; but I will tell you about my favorite one, the chocolate souffle. My partner and I started by melting chocolate with coffee over a double boiler and then stirring in butter once. After the chocolate mixture had cooled, we added egg yolks and then whipped egg whites with a pinch of salt until they had formed soft peaks and then we gradually added white sugar and whisk until we had softer but not stiff peaks. Then, we folded the egg whites slowly into the chocolate, poured the souffle mix into buttered ramekins and popped them into the oven until they had risen, about 14 minutes. When we took them out, Chef said they were perfect. Moist but not funny, firm but not dry and they tasted good too. My partner and I shared one and then unfortunately had to toss the rest of the souffles because they don't keep; after they cool down, they fall and look like a sick chocolate mousse -- not tasty or delicious.

Before I sign off, I should mention that the pictures from today are of our chocolate and banana souffles. They were taken at the un-named culinary school I attend because even though my oven is dirty, it's not That dirty...


Step One: Soon to be souffles, with rounded off tops, waiting to go in the oven


Step Two: First peak at the chocolate souffles -- note how they have risen just a smidge?

Step Three: Banana souffles (which photographed a little better than the chocolate)
almost finished baking


Step Four: Voila! Perfectly Risen Banana Souffle!