I have never made a souffle. I've made many keishes, so I figured this wouldn't be all THAT different. And in some ways it wasn't, eggs and flour, check. Now, putting the whole thing together was where it got a little more fun. I used this recipe by Alton Brown. I quickly looked at the ingredients and realized I didn't have any parmesan or butter. Usually I am a fan of going the cheap route in recipes and using margarine (I never have problems when I'm baking cookies), but that didn't seem like a good idea here. I had milk, but it was skim milk and I didn't think that would work nearly as well. So, I went to the store and bought some whole milk, butter, and parmesan.
When I got home and was looking at the recipe, I realized this would be a little bit more labor intensive than I had anticipated. I buttered the dishes to discover there was no room in the freezer, so I just put them in the fridge until I was ready to pour in the mixture. Next, I let the butter heat up while I gathered the flour and other dry ingredients. I think this is also when I separated the eggs. I included one mystery ingredient. You see, when I had my wedding shower (4 years ago now...) my sister had us play this game where she had blacked out the names of spices and we had to guess what each bottle contained. So, below is what I think MAY be powdered mustard, but since I lost the sheet my sister gave me, I have no way of knowing for sure... woops.
Oh well, the butter was getting brown (I was worried it was getting too brown, but things seemed to work out), so I wisked in my flower mixture and let it sit for a while. I don't think I waited a whole 2 minutes though, I was worried it was going to burn. Next I wisked up the eggs and added them in, along with the milk (which I had heated up for 1.5 min in the microwave) and let the mixture heat up. ***I just realized the recipe says to wisk the eggs into the milk, uh I didn't see that before so I just wisked the yolks directly into the mixture on the stove, and then added the milk. *** So, next up was the egg whites. I quickly looked for my hand mixer, but was unable to locate it (I tend to just use my wisk, spatula, hands, etc. when cooking).
Here's when I figured I could just wisk the egg whites up on my own. After all, I had just watched Julie and Julia and Julia seemed to be able to do it just fine, right? I wisked, and wisked, and wisked. It seemed like nothing was happening for a good 3 minutes. But then, I started to see something foamy! This gave me hope. So, I kept on going. It really would have been helpful to be ambidextrous. I used my left hand a few times, but it was like a disaster waiting to happen as I nearly sloshed out my hard-earned fluff from the bowl each time I tried. Anyway, about 10 minutes later things were looking pretty good. The eggs weren't "stiff" but, I could form a rounded peak from them. I felt satisfied enough to continue. So, I folded the egg whites into the mixture very carefully and poured it into the souffle dishes. All I had to do was wait. 30 minutes. I was so worried that things would be spilling out all over, I wouldn't get anything near to the puffed-up look I was aiming for, along with other fears. So, when the timer went off I almost didn't want to look! But, I grabbed my camera. If they did fall later, at least I would have proof they were high and mighty at some point! And, here are the results...
Don't they look so cute??? I was so glad they came out looking good! The smell of cheese, garlic, and butter had filled my kitchen and I was excited to try it! Of course, the first thing my husband did when I made him come look at them was poke one of them, of course making it fall, haha! But, here is my proof that I didn't completely mess things up! And they tasted yummy and fluffy! Next up, chocolate souffle!
Have you had any recent success (or failures) in the kitchen?
you are a freaking rock star. i think you should frame those photos...as a daily reminder that you're amazing!
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