Class 19: Blown Up Out of Proportion: The Overrated Souffle

So this class and the next were two more dessert/pastry classes. And I know I always say I'm more of a baker than a cook, but pardon me if the classes we have that are baking/dessert bore me to tears (no not actual tears...nobody likes a crybaby). Perhaps its because the chef's aren't that into teaching it (as they're chefs not pastry chefs) and that attitude is infectious. Now that I've gotten that off my chest, I'll get into the class descriptions, because I've clearly gotten you so excited to hear all about them. The first of these classes was about mousses and souffles.

Each group made a white chocolate mousse and a dark chocolate mousse and a dozen souffles (I'm not exaggerating). Mousses and souffles can be savory or sweet and both are lightened and made more airy by adding beaten egg whites. Souffle translates literally to "blown up", because it increases in volume as it bakes from the air beaten into the eggs. The problem with souffles is that they pretty much start deflating the second they come out of the oven, so they have to be served almost immediately. Mousse means "foam"...funny how things in a foreign language sound so much more appetizing. Mousses have beaten egg whites and whipped cream and are served chilled or frozen.

First up this evening was the savory souffle with Gruyere cheese. For all souffles, you have to chimisee the ramekin molds, which is buttering the molds and coating them with breadcrumbs for savory ones or sugar for sweet ones. This step is very important otherwise the souffle will stick and implode. We began the cheese souffle by making a white roux, which is done by melting butter and adding flour while whisking over heat. Once the roux was made, we added milk, a little at a time, while still on the heat and worked out the lumps before adding the rest. This mixture was seasoned with salt, pepper, cayenne, and nutmeg. We then added grated gruyere cheese and cooked and stirred it a bit more until the cheese melted (you have to use a relatively hard cheese for souffles...souffles with soft cheeses don't hold up very well). We added a spoonful of this to two egg yolks to temper them and then whisked this egg mixture back into the cheese base. Then we beat egg whites to stiff peaks. A good pointer here is that room temperature egg whites whip better than cold eggs. Once the egg whites were stiff peaks, we folded them in gently to the cheese mixture in thirds. At this point in the souffle process, it is important to be gentle and not bang the bowl or it will deflate and the souffle will be a giant flop. We poured this into the prepared ramekins and baked them for about 10 minutes. Mine and my partner's souffles rose beautifully! I thought they were pretty tasty but one of those things that looks better than it tastes. I personally think souffles tend to taste a bit more eggy then I would like, so I would never call this my favorite.

Our next trick was making a creme anglaise to start our white chocolate mousse. We infused cream with a vanilla bean and then whisked egg yolks with sugar and tempered this into the hot cream. This was then cooked a bit more until it coated the back of a spoon. We poured this hot mixture over some white chocolate to melt it. We added this to some some whipped cream we made. This mixture then went into the fridge to chill. Ours didn't set up to a mousse consistency and was more like a pudding, which was fine with me because who doesn't love vanilla pudding?

Our chocolate mousse was next, and it came out much more like mousse than our white chocolate. We started by melting bittersweet chocolate over a double boiler and making more whipped cream, this time with a bit of sugar (our arms were very tired by the end of this class). Next, some more egg whites beaten to stiff peaks and the whipped cream were gently folded into the melted chocolate. This went right into the icebox to chill.

Chef explained that the easiest way to handle souffles is to start with a base formula for the custard portion. Then, you can take this base and add the flavor agent and egg whites. In other words, if you have a bunch of people over and one wants a grand marnier souffle and the other wants a chocolate souffle you can make both without having to make two full separate recipes. Have a little "choose your own adventure" dessert party. The souffle base keeps about 3 or so days in the fridge. To make the base, we mixed sugar and milk on the heat. In a separate pot, we made a roux by melting butter and whisking in flour until the flour flavor cooked out. We then added the hot sugar milk to this a little at a time while whisking. We turned the flame to low and mixed this until incorporated. Once this was mixed well, we cooled it slightly and then gently mixed in egg yolks. Viola...we had our base!

My partner and I decided we'd make one set of grand marnier and orange souffles and another of chocolate rum. To start, we heated the orange and grand marnier and chocolate and rum over medium heat to mix together the flavor agents. Then, we added a kitchen spoonful of the souffle base to each and folded in egg whites that had been beaten to stiff peaks (see, I told you our arms were tired). Each of these made 4 souffles. I thought the orange ones were far better. But, I still think souffles are a bit more eggy then I would like, and they would never be my top choice for dessert.

Next up is cakes...