2405—Soufflé Preparations

Soufflé preparations are of two kinds:—

(1) Those prepared with cream, which if necessary may serve for all soufflés; (2) those with a fruit-purée base, which allow of a more pronounced flavour for fruit soufflés than if these were prepared with cream.

Cream-soufflé Preparation for Four People.—Boil one-sixth pint of milk with one oz. of sugar; add a tablespoonful of flour diluted in a little cold milk; cook for two minutes, and finish, away from the fire, with a piece of butter the size of a walnut, and two egg-yolks with three whites whisked to a stiff froth.

Soufflé Preparation for a Big Party.—Thoroughly mix half-lb. of flour, half-lb. of sugar, four eggs and the yolks of three, in a saucepan. Dilute with one quart of boiling milk; add a stick of vanilla; boil, and cook for two minutes, stirring incessantly the while.

Finish, away from the fire, with four oz. of butter, five egg-yolks, and twelve whites, whisked to a very stiff froth.

Soufflé Preparation with a Fruit Base.—Take one lb. of sugar cooked to the No. 2344, The Cooking of Sugar stage; add thereto one lb. of the pulp or purée of the fruit under treatment, and ten egg-whites, beaten to a stiff froth.

Proceed thus: Having cooked the sugar to the extent stated above, add to it the fruit pulp. If the latter reduces the sugar a stage or two, cook it afresh in order to return it to the No. 2344, The Cooking of Sugar stage; and, when this is reached, pour it over the whites.

Dishing and Cooking of Soufflés.—Whatever the soufflés may consist of, dish them in a timbale, or in a special false-bottomed dish, buttered and sugared inside. Cook in a somewhat moderate oven, that the heat may reach the centre of the soufflé by degrees.

Two minutes before withdrawing the soufflé from the oven, sprinkle it with icing sugar, which, when it becomes caramel upon the surface of the soufflé, constitutes the glazing.

The decoration of soufflés is optional, and, in any case, should not be overdone.