Don’t slam the door! Don’t let in the cold air! Don’t jump in the house! Don’t open the oven door! Sound familiar? If there was a soufflé in the oven, we all heard those freighting commands. So why does the word soufflé make cooks shudder or become tyrants?

Because the soufflé troll is just waiting to pounce on you and your oven.  Floppy egg whites?  Tough luck, your soufflé won’t rise.  Under baked, it will be soup.  Over baked, it will collapse.  But all is not lost! There are ways to ensure that these puffed-up prima donnas will steal the show.  The most important thing to remember in making a soufflé is not to let it frighten you.  As James Beard put it, the only thing that will make a soufflé fall is if it knows you are afraid of it. 

ANATOMY OF A SOUFFLÉ

What exactly is a soufflé?  The word itself comes from the French word souffler meaning to blow or breathe.  In culinary terms, a soufflé is a light, airy mixture, that usually begins with a thick egg-yolk based sauce or puree that is lightened by stiffly beaten egg whites. When placed in a dish and baked, if done properly, it lifts itself by means of expanding air incorporated into the whites, above and beyond the confines of the dish in which it was originally placed.  PHEW!  Did you get all that?

There is a soufflé out there for everyone.  Savory or sweet.  Vegetable or fruit.  So bring your colossal attempt to reach the sky, to the table.  And if it falls, call it a mousse, baked omelet, flan, strata or custard.

Here are a few basic rules to remember that will help you conquer your fears and produce a showpiece.

1. Select the proper size dish.  It should be straight-sided.  You can put the most delicate and tasteful batter in a dish that is too large and no matter how high it raises, the soufflé will never reach the top.  A good rule to follow is that there should be enough batter to fill the dish seven-eights. full.  When it begins to rise, the only way to go is up!

2. The bowl and beaters or whisk that you use must be perfectly clean of any fat or oil.  A copper bowl works best.  The acid in the copper reacts with the egg whites and increases the volume.  If you don’t own a copper bowl, stainless steel or glass will work.  To prep a copper bowl, pour about two tablespoons of lemon juice and one-half teaspoon salt into it.  Use your fingers to wash the inside of the bowl with the solution.  Pour out the lemon juice, rinse with hot clean water and dry with a clean towel.  Use what is called a “ball-in a ball-in a ball” whisk. It’s a small ceramic ball inside a small wire ball inside a larger balloon whisk.  You should be able to find them at a local gourmet kitchenware store.  Using a stainless steel bowl and electric beaters will work. However, you don’t achieve that certain sense of pride as when whipping the whites by hand.  You have better control of the egg whites when doing this by hand.  Sometimes, all you need is 2-3 more seconds to get them to the proper stiffness.

3. This brings us to the biggest concern.  How stiff is proper stiffness?  If your egg whites are too stiff, they will be much harder to incorporate into your base without breaking a lot of the air chambers you worked so hard to create.  Beat the whites just until they cling tightly to the side of the bowl and do not slide down the side when the bowl is tilted.  Another peril of over beating is inflating the air chambers too much.  Just like any balloon, if it is over inflated and the air inside is heated, the balloon will burst and collapse. Many cooks have felt tremendous disappointment that their soufflé did not raise.  In truth, many did rise, but could not hold the heated air and simply burst and deflated. 

4. Use one or two more egg whites than yolks.  Call it “lifting insurance.” The extra whites will also compensate for any of the balloons that have broken during the folding-in process. 

5. Generously butter the inside and top rim of your dish.  Coat the inside with breadcrumbs for a savory soufflé and sugar for a sweet one.  The butter makes for less sticking and easier clean-up.  The coating gives the batter something to grab onto during its rise. 

6. Do not jar the soufflé dish against the table top to level the batter as this will force the little balloons to burst.  Also, do not knock the beaters or whisk against the top edge in an attempt to clean them.  Knock them against the edge of your hand.  It will produce the same result and will not damage your soufflé.

7. Don’t overbake your soufflé.  Knowing how much time your soufflé needs takes practice and knowing your oven.  A good soufflé should be slightly runny and tacky in the center, but well-puffed, risen and firm across the top.  Shake it gently and if it is a little wobbly, it’s done.

8. Lastly,  a soufflé waits for no one.  Your guests must await its arrival.  Turn off the TV, lock the bathroom doors and announce dinner minutes ahead of the time you expect your soufflé to be done. 

Recipe: A Basic Soufflé from Soufflé & Quiche, a 2 in 1 Cookbook, by Paul Mayer
(This recipe for Basic Soufflé, while completely edible – albeit rather dull tasting, is given here for study and to be used as a basic guide.)
           
6 cup well-buttered soufflé dish             3/4 cup milk
2 tablespoons butter                           4 egg yolks
2 tablespoons flour                              6 egg whites
salt and white pepper

Preheat oven to 375˚.  Arrange the oven rack to allow ample room above soufflé dish.  Slightly above center is a good position.  Melt butter in saucepan.  Remove from heat and stir in flour.  Season highly with salt and pepper.  Blend milk gradually, until mixture begins to thicken and assumes the appearance of medium white sauce.  Do not let it come to a boil or it will be too thick.  As soon as the sauce begins to thicken, remove from heat.  This is the base for the soufflé.  At this point it should resemble a medium cream sauce and be thickened but slightly fluid.  Transfer the base to a larger bowl.  Beat egg whites until they are stiff, but not dry.  Fold gently into the base — never the other way around.  When the egg whites have been correctly folded into the base, the finished batter should be thoroughly blended, but retain the consistency of the egg whites and not runny or fluid.  Pour the thoroughly blended batter into prepared soufflé dish.  It should mound up in the dish and need leveling with a knife. 

Bake soufflé for about 17 minutes.  At the end of this time it will have risen clear of the dish, be puffy and browned on top and quite runny in the center.  For those who prefer a slightly less runny soufflé, the cooking time may be extended to 20 minutes.

For a more flavorful soufflé, add any one of the following:

• Cheese -  1 cup of grated sharp Cheddar  cheese alternately with the egg yolks.

• Chocolate – Heat milk with 2 oz. bittersweet chocolate and 2 tablespoons sugar.  Stir another 4 tablespoons sugar with flour into melted butter.  When beating egg whites, add 1 tablespoon sugar.

• Lemon – follow directions for chocolate above, but omit chocolate and add grated rind of 1 lemon and 1to 2 tablespoons of juice to sauce after it has been removed from the heat.

Sharon Bremner is Tasters Guild’s Culinary Consultant and Executive Assistant. She can be reached at Sharon@tastersguild.com.