No Worry Cheese Souffles

No Worry Cheese Souffles

Have you ever tried making a souffle before? Think it’s intimidating? Don’t sweat it. I’ve got a few tips on making a fantastic souffle and you won’t need to count on luck at all.

And I’m just gonna go ahead and tell you that if you have tried making a souffle in the past and it deflated a few minutes after you took it out of the oven, you did absolutely nothing wrong. The whole point of a souffle, in my opinion is the creamy smoothness of the center, not how high it rises. And actually, the fall is normal.

See? Mine isn’t all floof and poof. It was absolutely delicious and perfectly done and creamy in the center. Oh sure, it did rise two inches above the dish in the oven and that was pretty cool to watch, I admit but when the focus is on the texture and taste, the rise and fall is simply a bonus feature for the chef and anyone else who happens to take a peak in the oven.

Just as important as the center of the finished product, you want to make sure your souffle comes out of the dish clean when you dig in. You want very well buttered souffle dishes with cheese sprinkled in the bottom. I used Swiss cheese in mine but you can use any cheese you like.

To begin, you will heat some butter over medium in a sauce pan and stir in some flour to make a roux. A roux is just a fancy word for cooking flour in butter to make a thickener for your sauce. You’ll be adding milk to the roux once it has thickened. You’ll want to heat the milk up before you add it so that you don’t stop the cooking when you pour it in.

Bring the mixture up to a boil and whisk constantly until it is good and thick. Then add egg yolks. This is your sauce for the souffles.

Now for the fluff. Those magically wonderful egg whites will need to be whipped into shape, just like the meringue in Monday’s post. They’ll need to be shiny and be able to stand straight up when tested with a spoon.

You’ll stir a big spoonful of the egg whites into the sauce mixture.

Then add your shredded cheese.

And finally, fold in the rest of the egg whites.

Fill the buttered souffle dishes, leaving about a quarter inch from the top.

Since these are souffles, they will rise about two inches above the dish, so you’ll need to put an aluminum foil collar around the dishes to keep the mixture from spilling over the edges. Once you get the collars on your dishes, you’ll top the souffles with a little more cheese.

You’ll bake them in a 375 degree F. oven for twenty five to 30 minutes. Don’t be tempted to open the door to peak until 20 minutes have past or you will prematurely deflate them and they’ll cook unevenly.

After 20 minutes, you can check on them. See how far they have risen in this picture. The red line is where the edge of the dish is.

There’s a little rise still left in them after you take them out of the oven but that dwindles pretty fast. Like I said, don’t fret about that. If they rose in the oven, they’re fine.

As you can see here, the first bite comes out clean and the creamy, fluffy-egg-n-cheesey goodness is just perfect. You’ll want to serve these fairly quick after you take them out of the oven so that you can experience the perfectness of the finished product. If they cool too much, you lose some of that fluff and creaminess. They’ll still taste delightful but you get my point. (have a fork ready! 😉 )

All the instructions are in the recipe print out below. Be sure to try this one friends. If you’re a foodie like me, ya gotta have a souffle under your cooking belt at least once. I’m pretty sure you’ll keep on making them after you do because they really are fabulous.

Have a wonderful day and as always, keep it delicious!

Till next time ~ much love, Connie