Soufflé

With its chewy exterior and warm, puddinglike center, this dessert might be considered the more refined cousin of molten cake. With or without crème anglaise, it’s a showstopper.

Serve this soufflé immediately in the dish, or let cool and unmold for a denser version.

If you can’t find this squash, use butternut.

Fear of falling? Not with these frosty, airy soufflés.

Often people are intimidated by the thought of making a soufflé, but soufflés are actually quite easy to make and are delicious. This simple version has seasonal herbs and greens and is baked as a casserole in a shallow dish. It doesn’t have to be served before it deflates, because the amount of pouf is less important in this presentation. This casserole is wonderful for brunch or a light lunch served with some lightly dressed tender salad greens. If you want a traditional presentation, this same recipe can be made in an 8-cup soufflé dish.

You can bake this in a 4-cup mold with a paper collar, into which the soufflé will puff 2 to 3 inches over the rim and hold its puff when the collar is removed. Or bake it in a 6-cup mold, which will give you a more stable soufflé but less puff.

This crusty soufflé rises spectacularly in the oven and makes a grand entrance when you bring it to the table. The pureed parsnips add an intriguing nuttiness to this otherwise classic dish. Make it a first course at a dinner party or the main event at a more casual autumn or winter meal. Accompany it with lightly dressed butter lettuces, perhaps tossed with some sliced avocado and blood orange segments. The recipe is from Chef Michael Smith, who participated in the 2000 Workshop.

Homemade candied orange or tangerine peel (page 382) makes this soufflé special.

Homemade apricot jam is the secret to this easy soufflé. Plum jam and citrus marmalades are also good choices for soufflés.

Dramatic, puffy, and feather-light, with quivering, gilded caps, soufflés are surrounded by an aura of culinary mystery. Surprisingly, beneath the mystery lies a rather simple, but ingenious, dish. In a basic soufflé, a simple white sauce made of flour, butter, and milk is enriched with egg yolks; a flavoring element such as cheese (or fruit or liqueur for a dessert soufflé) is added; and the mixture is lightened with egg whites beaten to many times their original volume. The air trapped in the egg whites expands in the heat of the oven, puffing up the soufflé even more. The only critical point is that a soufflé should be sped to the table the moment it’s finished baking. Out of the oven, a steaming soufflé cools quickly and loses its triumphant height. Here is a basic method to follow to make savory soufflés. Start by making a white sauce, or béchamel: Melt butter in a heavy saucepan. Stir in flour, cook for a minute or two (this mixture is called a roux), and whisk in milk, a little at a time, whisking thoroughly after each addition before adding another. The flour and butter will bind up and then slowly loosen as more milk is added. If you add all the milk at once you are almost guaranteed lumps in the sauce. (If the sauce does get lumpy, push it through a strainer to smooth it.) After the milk is whisked in, bring the sauce to a boil, stirring all the while. This cooks the flour into the milk and fully thickens the sauce. Turn the heat down as low as possible, and simmer for at least 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, to cook out the taste of raw flour. Season the sauce to taste with salt, pepper, nutmeg, and cayenne. Let it cool slightly. Separate the eggs, stirring the yolks into the béchamel one by one and putting the whites into a large bowl in which they will be beaten later. Take care not to break the yolks: egg whites containing even a tiny bit of yolk refuse to be whipped into a foam as high, stiff, and stable as those without. If there are visible traces of broken yolk in your egg white, you may be able to scoop them out with an eggshell half; if you can’t, you may have to separate another egg and save the broken one for some other use. Eggs that are many weeks old have watery whites and fragile yolks, which makes them more difficult to separate than very fresh eggs, with their thick whites and stand-up yolks. To the béchamel and egg yolks, add grated cheese or other flavoring elements such as a vegetable purée (of leeks, asparagus, or garlic, for example), chopped shellfish, or a few herbs. This mixture is called the base of the soufflé. It can be prepared ahead of time and refrigerated, but be sure to take both the base and the egg whites out of the refrigerator at least an hour before baking to come to room temperature. When ready to cook, preheat the oven to 375°F (or to 400°F if you decide to make individual soufflés rather than one big one). The soufflé needs to bake in the center of the oven. Rearrange the racks, if necessary, to allow plenty of headroom for the soufflé to rise. Butter a baking dish liberally with soft butter. A soufflé can be baked in a traditional soufflé dish, in a shallow gratin dish or other baking dish, or in individual ovenproof cups or porcelain ramekins. Even a fl at sheet pan with sides will work; the soufflé won’t puff as high, but it will have more surface area to brown. Beat the egg whites vigorously with a wire whisk until they form peaks that are stiff, but still moist and smooth. It’s easy to overwhip egg whites with an electric mixer, so pay close attention when the whites start to thicken, and stop and check them frequently. (Overwhipped whites have a chunky granular look to them.) Stir about one third of the whites into the soufflé base, to lighten it. With a rubber spatula, scrape the rest of the beaten eg...

As we well know, chocolate has been around for a very long time, dating all the way back to pre-Columbian Mexico. Once considered a gift from the gods by the Mayans, and after being introduced to Europe, reserved for Spanish royalty, chocolate has become a worldwide favorite when preparing desserts. You’ll find it in cakes, tarts, dessert sauces, and soufflés, as you see here. Mexican chocolate, available in Latin markets and some supermarkets, is flavored with cinnamon, almonds, and vanilla. It makes for an unmistakable—and irresistible—soufflé.

Soufflés are far easier than most of us have been led to believe, and, surprisingly, they’re quite flexible; with the exception of whisking and folding in the egg whites, they can be prepared several hours in advance. You may, of course, make the soufflé with vanilla extract instead of a vanilla bean. The difference is real but subtle.

I created this soufflé for a magazine article about Thanksgiving in New Orleans. I wanted a side dish that was seasonal and distinctly southern—and this filled the bill. Imagine how nice it would look on your table in your prettiest casserole or soufflé dish. This soufflé dresses up a simple roast chicken or pork loin. But I’d encourage you to try it with Roasted Duckling with Orange-Cane Syrup Sauce (p. 262).

Nothing says “ta-da!” quite like a soufflé, making it a fitting finale for the most special of meals. With its dramatic presentation (the soufflé is delivered intact, then broken into and sauced tableside), this deep violet soufflé is one of the restaurant’s most popular desserts. Colored and flavored with the essence of sweet and juicy blackberries, the texture of the delicate soufflé is light, airy—practically ethereal. The thick blackberry sauce, much like a crème anglaise, heightens the berry flavor and adds a wealth of richness to the dessert. Lemony whipped cream is the finishing touch.

For those of you who are not from the South, spoonbread is best described as a cross between a soufflé and corn bread. Light and creamy like a soufflé, this elegant side dish delivers the essence of corn bread without any of its density. Parmesan cheese gives the spoonbread a rich, savory note, while sweet roasted garlic and roasted green chiles provide the force of its flavor profile. Chopped chives and oregano fleck each bite with fresh color and flavor. At Bar Americain we serve Green Chile Spoonbread alongside the Smoked Chicken with Black Pepper Vinegar Sauce (page 126), but I would be hard-pressed to think of a meal that wouldn’t be complemented by this dish.