The concept

Soufflé is one of those things that tells you the importance of learning some of the basics really well.

A soufflé is béchamel sauce, mixed with an omelette and a dash meringue. In this case a relatively thick béchamel. The ratios being roughly 1:1:3 where the milk is the 3 and the butter and flour the 1s.

For this recipe, we’re making 2 soufflés. 1/4 milk and 2 eggs are the main components of the recipe. Each dish gets an egg.

The egg whites get whipped until stiff and the yolks get beaten (with the flavorings) into the béchamel. Then the two are folded together.

We’re doing a sweet dessert soufflé in the picture, so for this

The ingredients

The bechamel

• 1 1/2 tbsp butter
• 1 1/2 tbsp flour
• 1/4 cup milk

The rest

• 2 eggs, separated
• 1 tbsp grand marnier
• 1/8 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 cup sugar
• some extra butter and sugar for the ramekins

The steps

1. Melt the butter and add the flour. (If you were making a savory soufflé, this would be a good time to add white pepper and salt if desired. But this one is going to be sweet.)
2. Blend over heat until smooth.
3. Add the milk and cook for a couple of minutes until the flour is cooked and remove from the heat.
4. Butter a couple of 1 cup ramekins, add a spoonful of sugar to coat the insides
5. Preheat the oven to 400°
6. In a clean bowl, beat egg whites until stiff if you are making a sweet soufflé add sugar here as if you were making a meringue.
7. In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks, and mix in the béchamel. This is where you would add flavorings. In this case, a tablespoon of grand marnier, perhaps some orange zest. A little vanilla is good too. Mix well until smooth.
8. You have a choice here, fold the yolk mix into the whites or vice versa.
9. Split into the two ramekins.
10. Bake for about 15 minutes or so.
11. Serve carefully, the dishes are hot.

I recommend a berry sauce. Pictured is a cherry sauce I had around from a batch of cherries we had gotten a few weeks ago and were afraid they’d go bad… simply put, put a bunch of cherries in a pot with some sugar and cook for a while. then strain.