Individual chocolate soufflés are visually impressive and perfect for your special someone. If you're serving more people, this recipe should scale up just fine. Dust the soufflés with a bit of cocoa powder just before serving if you like.
1 teaspoon melted butter, or as needed
2 tablespoons white sugar
2 ounces 70% dark chocolate, broken into pieces
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
4 ½ tablespoons cold milk
1 pinch cayenne pepper
1 large egg yolk
2 large egg whites
1 pinch cream of tartar
1 tablespoon white sugar, divided
Directions
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
Brush the bottom and sides (right up to the rim) of two 5-ounce ramekins lightly with 1 teaspoon melted butter. Add 1 tablespoon white sugar to each ramekin; rotate until sugar coats all surfaces, then tip to pour off extra sugar.
Pour 3 cups hot water into a pot set over low heat. Place chocolate pieces in a metal mixing bowl; place the bowl over the pot of water until chocolate melts; do not let the water simmer or boil.
Meanwhile, melt 1 tablespoon butter in a skillet over medium heat. Whisk in flour until incorporated and mixture thickens, about 1 minute. Reduce heat to low. Whisk in cold milk until mixture becomes smooth and thickens, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from the heat.
Transfer milk mixture to the bowl with melted chocolate. Add salt andcayenne pepper and mix until thoroughly combined. Add egg yolk and mix to combine. Leave the bowl above the hot (not simmering) water to keep chocolate warm while you whip the egg whites.
Whisk egg whites and cream of tartar in a mixing bowl until mixture begins to thicken; a drizzle from the whisk should stay on the surface for one second before disappearing into the mix.
Whisk in 1/3 of the sugar for 15 seconds. Repeat two more times to whisk in remaining sugar. Continue to whisk until mixture holds soft peaks and has a consistency of shaving cream, 3 to 5 minutes.
Transfer a little less than 1/2 of the egg white mixture to the chocolate mixture; mix until thoroughly incorporated, 1 to 2 minutes. Gently fold in remaining egg white mixture with a spatula until no white remains. Divide between the prepared ramekins and place on the lined baking sheet.
Bake in preheated oven until soufflés are puffed and have risen above the top of the rims, 12 to 15 minutes.
Chef John
Chef's Note:
If you want to use some liquor, add it to the milk and flour mixture after turning off the heat. Rum, coffee, orange, or raspberry liqueur all work beautifully.
Reviews (75)
Check out our Community Guidelines about reviews.
What do you think of this recipe? Share your experience to help others.
Made this recipe many times now. Easy and great consistent results. Usually we make a tripple batch because of the size of our ramekins. Watching the video the before the first time did help. Also, the first time I did mix the egg whites by hand as shown in video/noted in the recipe, save a boat load of time and just use a hand mixer it is way faster and better results. Have used dark and milk chocolate, my wife preffers it with (Ghirardelli) milk chocolate.
Please see few points I want to mention: 1. if your melted chocolate and rue (butter, flour and milk concoction) form a clumpy, slimy mass, DO NOT WORRY.. the egg yolks will fix it. 2. check the temp of your rue and chocolate mix, if it's temperature is LOWER?? or SIMILAR ??to your body temp... ONLY ??THEN ??ADD?? THE YOLKS! ?? 3. Contrary to the recipe, I'll advise you to beat egg whites to ultra stiff peaks so that the rookie mistake of overfolding doesn't make your mix soupy 4. Butter your ramekins in upward direction to ease the "climbing" process of soufflé and use superfine sugar to coat your ramekins.. NOT POWDERED!..SUPER??FINE?? 5. bake them until the top has gone brown and almost matte. 6. if you have a small 25 lt or 30 lt OTG then middle rack is best. 7. do put the ramekins in a cake tin with okayish high walls, that should NOT go above the height of the bowls. Rest is all technique.. if you are good at folding egg whites and do it all with confidence.. these should come out just perfect.. I made them for the first time and they came out PERFECT!! GREAT RECIPE??