National Souffle Day

Since today is National Souffle Day, as well as Rare Disease Day, my honey suggested we try this recipe for a Flourless Chocolate Souffle with Raspberry Cream.

I took up the suggestion, since I like both chocolate and raspberries!

My souffles turned out nice and fluffy, although they didn't rise to match the ones on the Souffle Day link.

But, they tasted good and made a nice light dessert.

Flourless Chocolate Souffle with Raspberry Cream

Ingredients

1/2 cup heavy cream

2 Tbsp confectioners' sugar

2 cups frozen raspberries, thawed

2 teaspoons butter for greasing ramekins

2 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped (I used Ghirardelli)

1 ounce unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped (I used Lindt 90% cacao)

1/4 cup whole milk (I used 1% milk. This is used to make the chocolate sauce that gets folded into the meringue for the souffles. I don't know if the extra 2% or so of milk fat would make a difference in the results.)

3 large egg whites

Pinch salt   (Baked meringues for pies generally use cream of tartar, so I suggest trying 1/4 teaspoon instead of the salt.)

2 Tablespoons sugar

2 large egg yolks

Directions

1. Whip the cream in a chilled bowl until semi-stiff. Add confectioners' sugar and whip until stiff. Refrigerate. Puree raspberries in a food processor, then pass them through a sieve; fold this into the whipped cream and reserve until later.

2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.Butter 4 1/2 cup ramekins and lightly dust the insides with sugar; set aside.

3. In a small saucepan, combine the semisweet and unsweetened chocolates with the milk. Melt over low heat, stirring constantly. 

4. The minute the chocolates are melted, remove the saucepan from the heat and transfer the melted chocolate to a small bowl and cool to room temperature.

5. Whip the egg whites with a pinch of salt until they are soft. Add the granulated sugar and whip until stiff but not dry. Whisk the yolks into the cooled melted chocolate. Fold 1/4 of the whites into the chocolate mixture to lighten it, then fold the lightened chocolate mixture back into the egg whites.

6. Spoon the mixture into the ramekins and bake for 10 to 12 minutes. The souffles should remain moist in the center.

7. To serve, bring the souffles to the table and serve raspberry cream on the side. Each diner should break the souffle open with a spoon and add raspberry cream in the center.

Notes:

My ramekins are 1 cup size, twice the size for this recipe, which is why the souffles didn't puff up over the top.

This recipe makes a LOT of the raspberry cream mixture, much more than is needed for the 4 souffles. Since strawberries are coming into season, we plan to use the leftover cream mixed with strawberries. It would also make a nice topping for vanilla ice cream!