A few Christmases back, I got a souffle pan, but the prospect of making a souffle always seemed so daunting, so I never used it. Then I saw a long article in Cooking Light a while back, all about how to make the perfect souffle. Included were several recipes for unique and low-fat dishes. Armed with a good recipe and new, adorable candy-colored ramekins (the Christmas souffle pan is in storage, alas), I tried my hand at my first souffle.
I halved this recipe and it fit into four little ramakins. I think this recipe would also work as-is for a normal souffle pan. The resulting desserts turned out rich and very chocolatey, which is great considering they're pretty low-fat (about 9 grams of fat, 300 calories each, including 2 tablespoons of sauce). For a chocolate souffle, I'd say that's pretty good. The souffle is better than the sauce, though, which tasted too flour-y to me. If you didn't mind a few extra calories, I'd make a regular chocolate sauce and maybe add a dollap of sweetened whipped cream on top. I'm leaving out the chocolate sauce recipe as it wasn't so good; you'll have to substitute your own.
Souffle:
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar, divided
3 tbsp flour
3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa
1/8 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups fat-free milk
3 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg yolk
6 large egg whites
- Move oven rack to the bottom of the oven, and remove the middle rack. Preheat oven to 425.
- Lightly coat 6 eight-ounce souffle dishes with cooking spray or a little butter. Sprinkle evenly with 2 tbsp of sugar.
- Combine remaining 1/2 cup sugar, 3 tbsp flour, 3 tbsp cocoa, and salt in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring with a whisk. Gradually add the milk, stirring constantly with a whisk; bring to a boil. Cook 2 minutes or until slightly thick, stirring constantly; remove from heat.
- Add chocolate and stir until smooth. Cool to room temperature, then stir in vanilla and egg yolk.
- Place egg whites in a large non-reactive mixing bowl and beat at high speed with a mixer until stiff peaks form (but don't overbeat!!). Gently fold 1/4 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture, then fold in remaining.
- Sharply tap dishes2 or 3 times on counter to level. Place dishes on baking sheet; place sheet on bottom rack of oven. Immediately reduce temperature to 350. Bake 40 minutes or until a wooden toothpick insterted into the side of the souffle comes out clean. Don't peak while they're cooking or they won't rise properly!
- Serve warm, straight from the oven when possible, with a drizzle of chocolate sauce.
