The CookingBites Cookalong: Soufflés and Fondants

Morning Glory

Morning Glory

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Have you ever made a souflée or a fondant? If not, now is your chance to try out a new technique. If you are an old hand then you can lend us your wisdom, share the results and perfect your techniques.

Soufflés have a reputation for being tricky. To make the classic 'smart looking' soufflé (pictured below) is not easy. It must rise symmetrically which is not the simplest thing to achieve.

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Photo: https://www.greatbritishchefs.com/recipes/souffle-chocolate-recipe

But of course, soufflés can be either sweet or savoury and quite often, the savoury versions are a more rustic affair and (arguably) easier to make. Here is a Smoked haddock soufflé from Chef Marcello Tully. Follow the link beneath the photo for the recipe.

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Photo: https://www.greatbritishchefs.com/recipes/haddock-souffle-recipe

Sometimes chocolate fondants (also known as 'lava cakes' or 'molten cakes') are confused with soufflés because they appear on menus as 'chocolate soufflés'. In practice they are quite different and are basically a warm cake with a molten centre, cooked in a mould and usually inverted onto the plate. They are almost always chocolate cake (I'm not sure why) although the molten centre may vary. Here is a salted caramel chocolate fondant from Olive magazine:

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Photo: https://www.olivemagazine.com/recipes/entertain/salted-caramel-chocolate-fondants/

So its over to you to cook along - add your images and comments to this thread and post recipes as new threads (with a link back here), please. Deadline midday July 12th.(GMT +1).

And good luck! I made a spinach soufflé many moons ago and I can't even remember if it was a success. Fondant I've made twice I think - based on a Delia Smith recipe. So - I'm certainly no expert here!
 
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My recent obsession with making healthy foods has become a fun game for me: can I take something that's known to be unhealthy, and tweak the recipe to make it healthy? I think I almost succeeded here. You can tell that the consistency is more like chocolate cake than a souffle. It was a bit dry, and I had to eat it with a (light) chocolate syrup. Also, they didn't rise the way you expect a souffle to rise, which I think is down at least partly to the ingredients (skim milk was one mistake).

This was a good starting point. I think I'm going to relax my need for healthy and make this again the proper way.
 
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morning glory said:
Wonder why they didn't rise, then?
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Sorry if wasn't clear. They did rise, but there was no big pop-over effect (like the first picture you posted). The rise must be because of air in the batter, which the egg whites help with. But, I think the skim milk was too thin to hold together as the steam started to build. By contrast, popover rolls that I made with whole milk puffed up perfectly.
 
So here is my attempt at Parsnip, Parmesan and Pernod Soufflée. The idea being that Pernod being aniseed flavoured should bring out the slightly anise flavour of parsnips. It rose pretty well - but should it appear slightly curdled inside? I don't think it should... maybe the Pernod curdled the mixture? The image is of a ramekin - I realised there is no scale comparison in the photos.

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Maybe it's the parsnip puree making it look curdled? Just guessing since I've never made one with a puree but it seems like it would change the texture.
 
medtran49 said:
Maybe it's the parsnip puree making it look curdled? Just guessing since I've never made one with a puree but it seems like it would change the texture.
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It could be - but it looked a bit curdled to me. Sorry I don't have a photo of the interior.
 
Abject failure - an attempt at a vegan spinach soufflé using aquafaba instead of egg white. This is how it came out of the oven!

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It looks like it pouffed and then popped! Did it taste good at least?

I'm going to make 2 kinds hopefully this week, a corn based dinner souffle and I'm going to try to recreate the first one I ever had, the vanilla one with mini chips.
 
medtran49 said:
It looks like it pouffed and then popped! Did it taste good at least?

I'm going to make 2 kinds hopefully this week, a corn based dinner souffle and I'm going to try to recreate the first one I ever had, the vanilla one with mini chips.
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What was left of it did taste good!

I look forward to seeing your efforts...
 
Today is the day for having a go. I haven't made a souffle for years, but seeing the lovely parsnip souffle made by @morning glory gave me inspiration to make a Stilton souffle to go with today's roast beef. This idea lead to a discussion with my wife about the difference between a souffle and a Yorkshire pudding, which she normally cooks to go with beef. We came to the conclusion that the only real differences are the temperature of the batter, and the separation and whipping of the egg whites.So, we decided to use her usual batter mixture without egg whites, add Stilton, and then add in the beaten egg whites before cooking. Will report back after the event!
 
epicuric said:
We came to the conclusion that the only real differences are the temperature of the batter, and the separation and whipping of the egg whites.
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Whilst the ingredients look similar, soufflées are made with béchamel sauce. This plus the egg whites provides the light creamy texture. Yorkshires have a more doughy texture.

However, as there are no rules here, it will be interesting to see how they turn out.
 
Great looking pics of some nice looking grub.lol. My wife's fave is twice baked cheddar cheese soufflé. I've got two recipes and will try very soon. My kitchens in disarray ATM. Floor prepped let week. Vinyl went missing. Laying it next day or two. Hopefully????

Russ
 
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