Soufflés Recipes

From
Thom's Recipe File

Background:

Soufflés date back to 18th-century France, and their reputation for being complex and easy to ruin is almost as old. It's really an undeserved reputation  Soufflés are actually quite easy to make.  As James Beard put it, the only thing that will make a soufflé fall is if it knows you are afraid of it.

The word "soufflé" comes from the French verb "souffler," which means, among several things, "to blow air."   A soufflé gets its magnificent but unstable height from bubbles of hot air trapped in its delicate structure.  When the soufflé cools, the hot air contracts and the soufflé deflates.  It's simple physics.  There are a number of tips for keeping your soufflé all puffed up and enjoying it at its peak, but the most important one is "serve immediately."

There is a soufflé out there for everyone.  Savory or sweet, vegetable or fruit, meat or vegetarian, hot or cold.  (Cold soufflés, by the way, are called mousses).

Soufflés can be made in containers of all shapes and sizes but it is traditional to make soufflé in "soufflé cups" or ramekins.  These containers vary greatly in size, but are typically glazed white, flat-bottomed, round porcelain containers with unglazed bottoms and fluted exterior borders.

I have found a food site that is a tutorial on have to do Soufflés and it is an excellent guide so I will not repeat it but I will give you the link to it here.  http://www.gildedfork.com/specialfeatures/souffle-tutorial.html  The tutorial is authored by Monica Glass and she is referred to as the Pastry Princess.  I have seen no reason to disagree with that.