In a strange bit of synchronicity, it seems that we have all suddenly become swept up in Souffle Fever at the same time.  Last weekend while browsing one of my new cookbooks, I found a section on soufflés that made me curious to try one out.  (I'm still on the hunt for an affordable and reasonably sized soufflé dish.)  Then I happened to run across the New York Times article from the "The Minimalist" blog, where food writer Mark Bittman explains that when he asked people to tell him what they wanted to learn to cook for Valentine's day, "chocolate soufflé" came out on top by a wide margin.

Bittman has posted his recipe for chocolate soufflé, in which he makes it sound pretty simple!  He also has a companion piece, a five minute video, which walks you through the steps and helps to demystify the process.  For example, the recipe specifies that you want to beat the mixture until it falls from the beaters in a single continuous stream - and how much simpler it is to just SEE THAT in the video.

One thing that gave me pause about Bittman's video is that he seemed pretty vehement about needing to use an electric mixer.  Which is too bad, because I don't have one.  The recipe in my cookbook says that you can use either an electric mixer or whip it by hand, but having watched Bittman's video, I don't think I would want to try doing that by hand!  It kind of made my arm cramp up just thinking about it.

The soufflé is of course a classic French dish, which dates from about the 17th century.  The soufflé is an egg custard to which the cook adds a meringue of beaten egg whites.  Simply fold the meringue into the custard base, pour into a straight sided soufflé or ramekin, and bake.  The soufflé will puff up (in fact, its name basically means "puffed up" in French) with the steam, while the meringue helps create a structure to hold it steady.  (You hope!)

Like most antique foods, soufflés come in both a sweet and a savory variety.  I have always had the suspicion that until recently, people didn't really draw a distinction between "meal food" and "dessert food."  Like you had a food, and you could either eat it for a meal or for dessert, depending on your whim.  It's almost as if they didn't have a lot of different kinds of food back then, and some things had to serve double duty!

The chocolate soufflé is the classic dessert soufflé, of course.   To create a flavored soufflé, simply add the flavoring to the base when you fold in the meringue.  By all accounts, a soufflé is not nearly as delicate as we have been led to believe!  Other classic soufflé flavors are based on liqueurs, such as amaretto or Grand Marnier.  Other common dessert soufflé flavors include coffee, and fruit flavors such as orange, blueberry, and key lime.

Creative Commons-licensed photo courtesy of Flickr user McPig