TWD: Chocolate Souffle (plus Cheese Souffle)

This week’s Tuesdays With Dorie recipe is Chocolate Souffle. There seems to be a lot of trepidation surrounding soufflés: they’re fussy, they won’t puff, they fall. They’re actually not that difficult to make, which is how I ended up making two yesterday, and even if they don’t puff as much as you want them to (mine didn’t) and they inevitably fall, they still taste great! I will get to dessert in a moment, but this selection inspired me to make a cheese soufflé, so I’ll start with dinner. I don’t recall ever having tried a chocolate soufflé until this weekend (and now I’ve made two variations), but cheese soufflés were in my dad’s regular dinner rotation; I loved them as a child and still make them occasionally. I definitely inherited the “Enjoyment of Rich Foods” gene from my dad, but luckily he also passed down the “Compulsion to Run 30 Miles per Week” gene, so it all balances out (more or less). This is the Souffle Au Fromage from Mastering the Art of French Cooking; I won’t post the recipe since it’s kind of late (I’ve been a terrible procrastinator with my TWD posts, it’s a vicious cycle) and I’m sure it can easily be found online, though I assume most home cooks, particularly food bloggers, probably own MTAOFC. And if you don’t own it, I recommend it; it’s worth it just for the yummy soufflé recipe.



As it turns out, I like chocolate soufflé just as much as cheese. I made a quarter recipe, divided into three six-ounce ramekins and baked them for eighteen minutes; I think I probably could have gotten away with two (and had a higher, more dramatic puff). I would have eaten the entire ramekin of soufflé either way, so I guess this is better for portion control. The soufflé was super-chocolaty, creamy, and the dusting of sugar in the ramekin gave a delightful crunch at the end. Mr. Penpen called it "perfect chocolateness." We gave this dessert a 9.5 for Deliciousness and a 2.5 for Effort, giving it an EDR of 3.8 – I can’t wait to make it again. Many thanks to Susan of She’s Becoming DoughMesstic for choosing this awesome dessert. You can find the recipe HERE on Susan’s site and visit the TWD blogroll to see what the other bakers thought of it.