The Daring Cooks' Challenges No. 1, Nov 2010 - Souffle.

Dave and Linda from Monkeyshines in the Kitchen chose Soufflés as our November 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge! Dave and Linda provided two of their own delicious recipes plus a sinfully decadent chocolate soufflé recipe adapted from Gordon Ramsay’s recipe found at the BBC Good Food website.

See Dave's and Linda's post from the challenge for loads of useful information and tips about making souffles.

This was my first challenge with The Daring Cooks so I was really excited about it.  I have made souffles before.  I used to make chocolate souffles as a student and I am sure I have made a twice baked camembert souffle from a recipe torn out of a magazine at some point.  It has been some years, though, since I have made one so I was very pleased to be challenged to try again.

While browsing in my local library, I found a book completely dedicated to souffle ("Souffle, sweet and savoury" by Sara Lewis) so had to get it out.

I chose her recipe for stilton souffle with rocket.  It had to be cheese!

Recipe - 

Serves 4.

Ingredients - 

65g (2.5oz) butter

3 tbsp fresh breadcrumbs

50g (2oz) plain flour

300ml (1/2 pint) milk

150g (5oz) stilton cheese, rind removed, crumbled

4 eggs, separated

25g (1oz) wild rocket leaves, torn into pieces, plus extra to serve

salt and freshly ground black pepper

balsamic vinegar, to serve

Method - 

1. Grease a medium tall 15cm (6in) diameter X 9cm (3.75in) deep souffle dish with some butter, then line the dish with the breadcrumbs.  Attach a souffle collar that stands 7.5cm (3in) higher than the top of the dish.

2. Melt the remaining butter in a saucepan,stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute.  Gradually mix in the milk and bring to the boil, stirring until thickened and smooth.

3. Stir in the cheese until melted, then remove from the heat and stir in the egg yolks and some salt and pepper.  Cover and leave to cool.

4. Whisk the egg whites into stiff, moist-looking peaks.  Fold the rocket leaves into the cooled sauce, then a large spoonful of egg whites to loosen the mixture.  Gently fold in the remaining egg whites.

5.  Pour the mixture into the prepared souffle dish and bake in a preheated oven, 190C, 375F, GM5, for 30-35 minutes until the souffle is well risen, the top is browned and there is a slight wobble to the centre.

6. Quickly snip the string off the souffle collar and gently peel away the paper.  Spoon the souffle on to plates.  Serve with extra rocket leaves dressed with balsamic vinegar.

The souffle tasted a lot better than in looks in that photo above.  Really cheesy!  Serving it with rocket and balsamic vinegar was the perfect contrast to the cheesy, eggy souffle.  Even my kids ate it!  Yay.

If you are really interested in making souffles, I would recommend having a look at fellow Daring Cook, Audax's post from this challenge.  He has done a lot of research and gives loads of tips and ideas for different sweet and savoury souffles.