Anna Olson Makes Chocolate Soufflé! | Baking Wisdom

welcome to baking wisdom this is my latest Series where I feature recipes from my newest cookbook of the same name now there are recipes in this book that are easy complicated and sit in the middle I'm not sure how you feel about chocolate souffle some people are petrified others say bring it on and that's the attitude I want from you today because we are going to Master Classic chocolate souffle the first thing you want to do is get your souffle dishes ready and what I need to do is butter the dishes and then coat the insides with flour you know the whole secret behind a delicious souffle recipe is getting that lift and Rise And if you simply grease your baking dish with a little bit of butter or if you were using spray well that souffle would slide right down so the sugar in addition to adding a little sweetness and almost building a delicious crust allows that souffle to climb and really rise up as it bakes at the same time while I'm doing this I'm preheating my oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit 200 Celsius that way you've got that fast instant Heat to really coax that souffle to life you're gonna see throughout this recipe I'm gonna do this a lot because that's what we want our souffles to do now to coat the dishes with sugar so just take a little bit of granulated sugar and pour it into a baking cup and then twirl it around as you let it tumble out into your next souffle dish and then you want to pop this onto a lined baking tray or in a roasting pan that way you're taking them in and out of the oven all at once if you were doing a Savory souffle like a cheese souffle you would coat your ramekins with either breadcrumbs or with in the case of a cheese souffle grated Parmesan cheese could be nice put it back in my Sugar Bowl no I have to be careful because this sugar came in contact with butter this is not the type of sugar I would use to add to a meringue whipping egg whites because Fat's the enemy so I would save this for another recipe it's time now to make the base of the souffle if you are making a cheese souffle you make a foundation sauce an actual Bechamel that you add cheese to if you're making a fruit souffle you would make a pastry cream that's your base add your fruit to it at the end what is common you fold in whipped egg whites when you're making a chocolate souffle well it's easy because chocolate is simply the base but you do need to give some body to it so I've got a little milk with a touch of sugar and two teaspoons of corn starch and I'm going to stir that together now to have it ready this will be added to my melted chocolate whenever you're adding cornstarch to a liquid you want to make sure that liquid is cold the cornstarch doesn't actually dissolve in there but if you were to add cornstarch dry to a hot liquid you would instantly get lumps I'll take this over to the stove where I'm going to melt my chocolate because I'm melting a combination of chocolate and butter together I can melt it over direct heat but definitely on low heat I like to put my butter in the pan first that way it kind of creates a barrier before I add my chocolate you don't have to melt your butter before you add your chocolate I'm using kuvater baking chocolate I've got 150 grams or 5 ounces you can sometimes buy it already in chip form but don't confuse this with the chocolate chips you buy in the bag for your chocolate chip cookies that is designed to hold its shape in baking where we want baking chocolate that melts into this beautiful souffle if you're melting chocolate over direct heat like I am here you have to stir it and watch it carefully make sure it doesn't get too warm that chocolate is nice and smooth and glossy so now I can add my milk sugar cornstarch mixture I'll add just a little it first I'll give it a whisk now don't be surprised when you're adding cold milk to the warm chocolate if you see the chocolate go grainy for a second just keep whisking and even if it doesn't seem perfectly smooth once you fold in the egg whites it will smooth right out the one thing I don't want when you make this chocolate souffle is any moment of panic there we go so now what I'm going to do turn the heat on very very low so you do want to keep this chocolate warm not hot but just on the lowest heat setting you have on your stove that way when you fold in the egg whites it'll fold in easily well the good news is you can get the foundations made ahead take care of your pans grease them and sugar them have them on the tray you can make your chocolate base and add the milk ahead of time chill it just re-warm it when it's time to actually whip the egg whites and get your souffles in the oven now it's time for the essence of the souffle making a meringue to fold into that chocolate base it takes a lot of egg whites 10 egg whites so that's 300 grams worth of egg whites and a little tidbit of baking wisdom egg whites store and freeze perfectly well so if you're separating eggs for another recipe maybe a pastry cream or creme brulee save those egg whites you can keep them in the fridge for a week even two weeks or freeze them just thaw them in the fridge overnight but when you whip your egg whites you want to whip them at room temperature egg whites at room temperature whipped to a fuller volume we want to give those egg whites every opportunity to be the best they can be so that means adding a little bit of cream of tartar to the egg whites this is acidic and that helps the proteins within the egg whites stretch to their fullest volume without collapsing and that's a key behind a successful souffle I've got my sugar measured and ready to add I'll slowly start adding the sugar after the egg whites become foamy let's take a look at these egg whites now you've got three peaks in the whipping process that you use in the baking World you've got soft Peak where when you lift the beaters you get a Bend you've got medium Peak when you lift the beaters the meringue has just a slight Bend to it and then stiff peak where the meringue holds upright now you would think that for a souffle you want a stiff peak but you actually want a soft Peak so that there's room for those souffles to grow as they bake inside the oven so as I can see here I have the meringue it's still running off the Beaters 10 egg whites makes a lot of meringue so it can take a few minutes but just watch your mixer carefully and here's another bit of baking wisdom for you did you know that when you're whipping egg whites you don't have to whip them on high speed sure it may take just a little longer but if you whip your egg whites on one speed less than high you can discern that line when you hit your soft Peak perfectly oh there's a nice soft Peak got glossiness but when you lift your beaters you've got a nice curl to the meringue it's got a little movement to it and that's what we want I'm going to hang on to my whip attachments that is going to come in handy and now you want a big bowl even though I whipped my egg whites in a big bowl you don't want to add the chocolate to the whites we want to add the whites to the chocolate so now this has been holding warm we'll transfer it to our folding Bowl now I don't want to introduce the whites all at once to the chocolate I want to lighten my base by essentially sacrificing a third of the egg whites that will make the remaining two-thirds easier to fold in because I'll have a lighter base I want to use the whip attachment it's a great way to lighten that base and get the egg whites mixed in there without deflating them too too much then I can switch to a spatula for the next step you will see the souffle batter become fluid as you're mixing it so don't expect volume this will be pourable by the end now I can add the remaining egg whites if you've worked with folding in meringues before you've probably been told be very careful be very gentle which is true but remember that time is the enemy so while I want you to be gentle and fold from the bottom pulling your base upwards you also want to be relatively quick if you take too much time you risk letting those egg whites deflate and when you no longer see streaks you know you're done folding now I'm going to pour the batter into the souffle dishes these only take 15 to 18 minutes to bake as the souffles bake you don't want to open the oven door until you hit at least the 15 minute Mark they only take 15 to 18 minutes a souffle doesn't actually fully cook set all the way through you want it to be a little soft and creamy in the center you can tell when your souffles are done because outside of the obvious they've all risen up they'll be sort of matte and lose their shine on the top surface then it's time to eat to make sure everyone is at the table great volume it's a bit of a myth that you have to serve the souffles seconds from the oven you've got about three minutes okay that's not a lot of time but at least you have three minutes what I like to do is crack open the center lift out a piece I've got a salted butter caramel sauce pour in a little caramel into it and you know this is a million degrees right now so I'm gonna talk about some other things while I let this cool getting the perfect flat lift on a souffle is the magic and it is a combination of the whipped egg whites the level of folding so even if it cracks on the top like mine did guess what it tastes exactly the same I know you are going to feel so proud when you make this chocolate souffle recipe your guests are going to absolutely love it and I can't wait until you join me again for another episode of baking wisdom okay now I think the souffle is cool um

Channel: Oh Yum with Anna Olson

Views: 24,113

Keywords: anna olson (chef), bake with anna olson (tv program), anna olson recipes, baking with anna olson, baking wisdom, chocolate recipe, souffle recipe, chocolate souffle recipe, chocolate souffle cake, souffle cupcake, easy chocolate souffle, easy souffle, soft peak, stiff peak, ramekin, dessert recipe, easy dessert, chocolate dessert, bake along, follow along recipe, at home recipe

Id: 7AjwDD7wLo4

Length: 11min 10sec (670 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 25 2023