Chocolate Soufflé

For those of us with a sweet tooth and an affection for chocolate, here’s a perfect solution. Nothing beats a warm chocolate soufflé, and utilizing only a few simple ingredients you too can experience this wonderful treat at home. Serve with your favorite berries, whipped cream (homemade whipped cream recipe in my crème brulee post), a scoop of ice cream or all of the above. Recipe makes 4 ramekin size servings.

Ingredients :

2 oz bittersweet chocolate

1 egg, separate the yolk and the egg white

3 tablespoons salted butter, plus more for greasing the ramekins

3 tablespoons sugar , split in half

garnish (berries, ice cream, whipped cream and powdered sugar)

Directions :

Preheat oven to 350* . Take 4 ramekins and grease generously with butter. Place salted butter and chocolate in a bowl, slowly melt and stir together in a double boiler. Once melted, remove from stove and allow to cool slightly, but not harden. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolk and 1.5 tbsp of sugar together for about 2 minutes so that it is light and airy. Then add the cooled chocolate into this bowl and whisk together for another 1 - 2 minutes. Using a stand mixer (and separate bowl) on medium high speed, whisk the egg whites and the remaining 1.5 tbsp of sugar, for a few minutes until visible thick peaks form. Carefully take the egg white and sugar mixture, and fold in with a spatula, about 25% at a time, into the bowl with the chocolate. Be very gentle as you fold it in and lightly stir to help keep it airy. When all is fold in together, divide the batter among the 4 ramekins. The batter should come no more than 2/3 of the way up as it will rise above the sides a good amount during baking. Place ramekins spaced out on a baking sheet for easy transport and place in the oven for 25 minutes. Remove baking sheet from oven and carefully place the the ramekins on a plate. Garnish and serve immediately.

*Tip for fancy plating, you can take the edge of a chocolate bar, heat briefly with a lighter and then place the edge on the plate to create even lines of chocolate.