IMBB 20: Chocolate & Custard Duo-Soufflé

It was a month of soufflés.  I researched, I pondered, and in between working way too much (just watch -- come February I'll be complaining about the lack of contract work), I managed to bake an apple soufflé, a coconut soufflé, two custard soufflés, and a coconut-peanut butter with cayenne soufflé. This last one was a recipe of my own creation, and I fully intended it to be my IMBB #20 entry, but as of tonight, Sunday, I am still perfecting the recipe and with the clock ticking down I needed a winner.

Joe was advocating my chocolate soufflé (recipe courtesy of Jacques Torres), and he made a suggestion I couldn't resist: a chocolate soufflé-filled custard soufflé.  Two soufflés in one!

This required substantial coordination.  I had to make two different bases and two batches of whipped egg whites and have them ready to go at the same time.  When the soufflé fillings were ready, I layered the bottom of the soufflé dish with custard soufflé.  I held the largest cookie/biscuit cutter I had in the middle of the soufflé dish and filled it with chocolate soufflé.  Then I filled in custard soufflé in the gap between the dish and the cookie cutter.  I lifted out the cutter and piled more chocoate and custard soufflé mix.  I ended up using all of my custard soufflé and had a bit of chocolate soufflé mix left over.

I knew from experience that my chocolaté souffle would be a high riser -- more so than the custard soufflé -- and I wasn't disappointed.  The chocolate soufflé puffed up, pulling away from the custard and creating a two-toned soufflé with a high-rising center.

While the soufflé baked, I mixed up a batch of slightly sweet whipped cream to serve with it...

Soufflé recipes will be in the extended post.

Tagged with: IMBB # 20 + Souffle

I used 1/2 of a Custard Souffle recipe, and 1/2 of a chocolate souffle recipe. I think I had room for 3/4 of a custard souffle recipe in my bowl.

Custard & Chocolate Duo-Souffle
1 quart (i.e. 4 cup) souffle dish, buttered and sugared
1 4 inch diameter round cookie cutter. You could fashion one in a pinch out of wax paper or parchment paper.

Let the eggs warm to room temp and separate the whites and yolks. Make sure to keep each recipe's eggs separate.

Heat oven to 375 F.

Add the lemon juice to the chocolate souffle's egg whites. (By letting the eggs warm to room temp, I was able to skip the "heating" step in Jacque Torres' recipe.)

Make the custard base per the custard souffle instructions. Set it aside to cool. (I put it in the fridge.)

Melt the chocolate per the chocolate souffle instructions.

When the chocolate is ready, whip each set of egg whites until you have stiff peaks. Rapidly fold in each base into its respective egg whites.

Layer the bottom of the souffle dish with custard souffle. Hold the cookie cutter in the center and fill it with chocolate souffle. Then, in a test of dexterity, while still holding the cookie cutter, fill in the outside ring with more custard souffle. Lift out the cookie cutter and top off the souffle with more chocolate and custard mix. You can mound the chocolate above the level of the bowl.

Bake at 375 F for 20-25 minutes on center rack in the oven. (Make sure there is no rack over the souffle.)

PLEASE NOTE: the below recipes are given in their FULL amounts with complete instructions for making either one as a "single-flavored" souffle. Halve the ingredient amounts to make the "duo souffle".

Custard Souffle
This Custard Souffle Recipe comes from the Classic Cullinary Arts website.

2 scant Tbs butter
2 Tbs flour
3 Tbs sugar (the original recipe uses 2 Tbs, but I think 3 would be better for the "duo-souffle")
1 C milk
four eggs, separated

Let the milk come to a boil. Beat the flour and butter together; add to them, gradually, the boiling milk, and cook eight minutes, stirring often. Beat the sugar and the yolks of the eggs together. Add to the cooked mixture, and set away to cool. When cool, beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth and add to the mixture. Bake in a buttered pudding dish for twenty minutes in a moderate oven. Serve immediately with creamy sauce.

Chocolate Souffle
The chocolate souffle is coutesty of a Jacques Torres show on Food TV from years, and years ago. It's very sweet, and so slightly sweet whipped cream goes very nicely with it.

4 1/2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
8 large egg whites
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
whipped cream or creme anglaise
powdered sugar (confectioners sugar)

Preheat oven to 375 F. You're going to use the center rack. Remove any racks above the center one to give the souffle roomto rise.

Coat the inside of a 1.5 quart souffle mold with butter. Add some sugar and tilt to coat all inside surfaces.

Using a double boiler over high heat, melt the chopped chocolate. Stir occasionally. It should be quite hot.

Place the egg whites, sugar, and lemon in another double boiler over boiling water. (Remember, the bottom of pot or bowl should not be touching the water.) Whisk until lukewarm. Remove from heat and use an electric mixer to whip the eggs to stiff peaks. Use a rubber spatula to fold the hot chocolate into the whipped eggs. How well you fold will affect the chocolate distribution in the souffle.

Gently place the souffle mixture into the buttered and sugared mold. Fill to about one inch above the rim of the mold. (Yes, if you overfill the mold you will get a really high souffle.) Place in the center of the oven. (Did you remove the racks above the souffle?) Bake until the souffle has risen 1.5 times in height and starts to brown on top — approximately 20 minutes.

Comments

[Marc]

Ingenious! The "duo-ffle" opens up a whole new world of souffles.

[Nic]

Beautiful. I love the color contrast.

[boo_licious]

Fantastic creation! Who would have thought of a souffle within a souffle.

[Brett]

Very innovative! Can't wait to see the recipe. It really came out terrifically.

[Melissa]

it looks beautiful! wow---please post the recipe :) want to take a look...

[chronicler]

What an excellent combo! So very enticing! A month of souffles? I may have to try that! They all sound so good!

[laura @ cucina testa rossa]

sorry i'm late :-( here's my post: chocolate passion fruit souffle! yum! :-) http://cucinatestarossa.blogs.com/weblog/2005/10/sugar_high_frid.html

[barbara]

That is amazing. I would never have thought to combine two soufflé mixtures.

[Cathy]

WOW! That's an impressive soufflé!

[Kitchen Chick]

Thanks! I had fun making it. Both of these recipes, especially the chocolate one, seem to be able to "hold their air" a bit longer than other souffles I've made.

The round-up is finally getting on line. Savories first, sweets second.