Daring Cooks November: Soufflé

I was very nervous when I read the Daring Cooks‘ challenge for this month – soufflé.  Now, whilst I have enjoyed a few soufflés in my time, I have never actually made one so I was excited to try.  Since this is the Cooks and not the Bakers, I wanted to try a savoury one, since, really, less sweets around our house can only be a good thing…

Dave and Linda from Monkeyshines in the Kitchen chose Soufflés as our November 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge! Dave and Linda provided two of their own delicious recipes plus a sinfully decadent chocolate soufflé recipe adapted from Gordon Ramsay’s recipe found at the BBC Good Food website.

I settled on a Goat’s Cheese Soufflé I found in Bon Appétit from October 1999.  What really appealed to me was the fact that it could be twice baked, meaning that if it was a disaster and didn’t rise, I could always just bake it twice and pretend it was meant to be like that.  The think I was most nervous about was the difficulty I would probably have photographing them since I knew they had to move from the warm kitchen to the cold front porch (for the light) and that I would have to move fast before they fell.  They definitely rose, not to extreme heights like you see on some soufflés but there was some respectable height there. Well, until they were on the front porch…

I actually only made three of these and the recipe halved pretty easily.  Neil and I each had one for an impromptu brunch…

Cleo enjoyed helping us clean the dishes…

And I twice baked the third one later on for a light dinner…

This tasted like a giant old cheese puff with gooey cheesy goodness inside. Perfect on a bed of salad greens.

On the whole, I was fairly pleased with these soufflés and would definitely attempt them (and a chocolate one!) again.  Way less scary than I thought. I *do* need to work on the height and rise factor, I know, but I think they are pretty anyway. And Neil was certainly pleased when I told him if he would help me expedite them to the porch for their photo session that he would be rewarded with one. Maybe we weren’t quite quick enough to capture their full height but at the end of the day, they were presentable and tasted amazing.

Thanks Dave and Linda for a great challenge – thoroughly enjoyable and demystified the soufflé a little for me!

* Did you see my World on a Plate, Destination: Umbria video? I would love your vote to move on to Round 8 of Project Food Blog where we have to bake with pumpkin.  I have some pretty fun ideas…  Voting open 6AM Pacific Time on Monday, November 15th until 6PM Pacific Time on Thursday November 18th.  Simply click here (note: link no longer live) to read the post and vote.   Many thanks for your continued support.

** Did you know? Jamie Oliver is speaking in Toronto on November 18th.  Thanks to The Art of Cooking, I am able to offer a discount to you, my readers, of $10 per ticket (more if you purchase more than 5 tickets).  Click here for the special promotion code to be applied to your ticket price.  Don’t miss this event – I saw Jamie speak last year and it was inspirational to say the least. It inspired me to start Les Petits Chefs, for one…

58 thoughts on “Daring Cooks November: Soufflé”

  1. Your souffle looks soooo delicious and beautiful! You did a wonderful job with the souffle. I love the picture of Cleo helping eat the souffle, too cute! After seeing your souffle, I just applied to be a daring cook. I’m a daring baker right now but I thought I might as well challenge myself too!

    Reply
  2. “This tasted like a giant old cheese puff with gooey cheesy goodness inside. ”

    Okay, I’m sold! They look and sound fabulous. Your lucky cat! Mine tried to steal my sweet soufflé, but I don’t think she would have been as impressed. Great job & gorgeous photos.

    Reply
  3. Mmmm goat cheese is one of my favorites! I think, when I remake my souffle, I’ll be using it instead :). Mine also rose in the oven but after taking it out it deflated after a minute or two… As long as it tastes good though who really cares?

    Reply
  4. Love the idea of a twice-baked soufflé! All my windows and doors were open to the outside in order to let in as much light as possible, so mine deflated rather quickly too with the cold outside air whirling around our dining area…

    Reply
  5. They look beautiful! I can’t wait to give souffles a try once I get my ramekins. And of course it has to be goat cheese, because nothing can beat that. Thanks for sharing the recipe and I’ll be sure to bookmark it!

    Reply
  6. Oh these look so good, love that you can twice bake this recipe, so its on for me to whip some of these up for lunch today (Momma’s coming over for lunch). Just the thing. Great job Mardi

    Reply
  7. I think your souffle looks gorgeous and I bet it was amazing with the goat cheese. I had a hard time with the pictures too, but didn’t mind eating the fallen souffles one bit!
    🙂

    Reply
  8. Hi Mardi!!
    The souffles look lovely and I know they had to be delicious!!! I completely understand about trying to photograph them before they fell – had a similar issue with Toad in the Hole!!!

    Cleo is beautiful too.. lucky kitty!!

    Reply
  9. OMG only one word to describe your souffle… AMAZING! ok maybe two words.. INCREDIBLE! Oh wait.. maybe 3 words… DIVINE!!!!!! I agree with Conor, I wish I were Miss Cleo hehe.

    Reply
  10. Your *cheese puffs* souffles look great especially when pared with that salad! I can so understand the running back and forth to the cold front porch. I’ve been trekking plates of cookies from the diningroom to the back deck in the cold trying to get decent daylight shots! As in your cooking & baking skills, your photography skills are amazing as well.

    Reply
  11. Pingback: Tweets that mention Daring Cooks November: Soufflé -- Topsy.com

Leave a Reply to Mardi@eatlivetravelwrite Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.