Friday, March 16, 2012

FFWD Cheese Souffle


The first time I made a souffle it was for a birthday party I threw for Paul.  In hindsight, the fact that I gave this party kind of amazes me.  I've always been very interested in food, and at the time I was definitely watching a lot of Food Network, but I rarely actually cooked.  I was not the least bit confident in my cooking skills, and was too nervous to cook for Paul or anybody really.  But for some reason I offered agreed to host a dinner party for his birthday.  We invited six of his friends to my tiny apartment, and somehow came up with a menu.  He thinks it was my idea, I think I may have given him some ideas but that he definitely made the final choices.  We decided on bruschetta to start (fine, but the least memorable part of the night), with beet salad and lasagna as the main course.  We still love that beet salad, and I actually just made the lasagna again this week.  (I always substitute ground turkey and chicken sausage for the beef and pork and cut down on the sugar, but even though I love making fresh pasta and more complicated lasagnas now, sometimes I still love having a classic lasagna.)

For dessert, I made Ina Garten's Raspberry Orange Trifle (a bit time consuming, but truly excellent!) and a Sara Moulton chocolate souffle (I can't find the recipe).  If I had known that souffles were supposed to be scary and hard to make there's no way I would have agreed to make it.  But I knew too little to be scared.  Sometimes ignorance really is bliss.  Sara made the recipe sound easy enough, and I liked that I could prepare the souffles ahead of time and just bake them off when I was ready to serve dessert.  When it was time for dessert I put out the trifle and had everybody sit down, and then I pulled my souffles out of the oven and brought them immediately to the table.  They had risen beautifully, and everybody got to see them before they started to sink.  It was a great night.


Since then, I've never been afraid of souffles.  I've made dessert souffle a few more times, and have also made a few different cheese souffles.  We loved this cheese souffle.  It was reasonably easy to put together, and came out puffed and golden.  The only problem was that although it looked done, when I started to serve it I realized that the middle wasn't cooked properly.  The first problem I've ever had with a souffle!  Luckily it was just the two of us, so I served us each a (cooked) portion from the outside, covered it with foil, and put it back in the oven.  I was pretty annoyed at myself, though.  I had a feeling the top was cooking too quickly, but I was afraid to open the oven to cover it with foil, so I took my chances and was wrong.  Oh well, it still tasted great.  Next time I'll know to turn the oven down a bit, and/or be brave and use the foil.


11 comments:

  1. Oh, yours looks so puffy and nice! I'm sad mine deflated a bit quickly. Great post!

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  2. Sometimes it is better to not know what you are getting into :-)
    Looking at it, I would have never guessed you had an issue. Looks great.

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  3. Looks wonderful. Mine started to brown very quickly, and I remember reading that
    Dorie said DO NOT OPEN BEFORE 25 MINUTES AT LEAST, I finally slipped in a piece of
    tin foil at 30 minutes. Hubby and I loved the recipe, and I definitely want to try other
    types of soufflé with different ingredients.

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  4. It looks so puffy and golden I would never suspect there was a problem. I read where someone else had the same issue though.

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  5. My husband doesn't like to cook and does very little of it--consequently, he sometimes chooses challenging recipes without knowing that they're challenging. As you say, sometimes ignorance is bliss.
    www.weekendviands.blogspot.com

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  6. Hi Jora! Sometimes we just don't know enough to be afraid which allows us to be daring without even knowing it! Sounds like a memorable birthday party for Paul.
    I had a similar issue with the timing. Mine looked perfect, but it wasn't cooked through. We did the same as you, ate the cooked part and let the rest bake. My "remainder" wasn't puffy, but it was tasty once it was cooked through. Loved the true souffle part and will definitely try it again.

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  7. Jora, The younger we are, the more ambitious project we undertake although we don't know that. Caution comes with age and maturity. That's too bad, isn't it. Your soufflé was lovely and looked delicious. Mine was a bit undercooked also. Because I waited the required 25 minutes, my top got too brown to be left uncovered ( covered it with foil) but it also made me believe my soufflé was more cooked through than it was. No harm, no foul. It was delicious. A nice Post. Mary Hirsch

    http://www.lightsonbrightnobrakes.com/

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  8. It looks delis! I wish there were an easier way to know when they are fully done. Really depends on the dish size I guess. Still, look at that rise!

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  9. Perfectly done! I don't think you were alone with an undercooked center. And I had to check out your beet salad...YUM!!! Printing it off to try soon...thank you, Jora!!!

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  10. What a wonderful dinner you had that night! Your souffle looks beautiful, Jora. I was sick and didn't get to make this, but I want to make it soon. I'm glad to hear that you overcame your fear of making souffles. It will be another first for me when I do make it.

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