Chocolate Soufflé and Plating Sauces

Day 11: Recipes for Chocolate Soufflé, Butterscotch Sauce, and Fruit Coulis.

Chocolate Soufflé
3 oz Bread Flour
3 oz Butter
1 pt Milk
4 oz Sugar
6 oz Yolks
2 tsp Vanilla
10 oz Whites
2 oz Sugar
3 oz Unsweetened Chocolate
1 oz Bittersweet Chocolate

Preparing Chocolate Soufflé

-Chop the chocolate; it will melt easier.
-Bring to a boil the milk and 4 oz of sugar.
-Smash the butter and flour together to form a paste.

-Have the baking pans ready- they are served in the dish they bake in. Usually a straight sided pan.
-Brush the inside with melted butter and dust with sugar. Brush the butter up to the collar and sugar all around. With your thumb, clean off the collar. If not, the cake will stick to it and not rise properly.

-They are not baked in the convection oven; the air knocks down the cakes and they do not rise.
-You want the batter to only be in the bottom, filled to the bottom of the collar.
-Soufflé does not have a lot of flavor; usually a sauce is poured in when served, it adds some flavor.
-You want the oven really hot to give it good bounce right away.
-Whip the egg whites with a small amount of sugar in the mixer to a glossy stiff peak.
-Add the flour paste to the boiling milk and whisk together. Right now this is the base for a white sauce.

-Turn down the heat and add the egg yolks. At this stage it looks like pâte á choux.
-Turn off the heat and add the flavoring.
-While it is still hot add the chocolate. The bittersweet and unsweetened chocolates add distinct chocolate flavor without a huge amount of sugar; it balances out.

-Scrape the bowl all around making sure everything is well incorporated.

-Cover the pot with a bowl to keep it from drying out.
-Whip the egg whites to light foam then begin to sprinkle in the sugar. Whip until glossy peaks.
-Have a pastry bag ready; the batter will be piped into the baking cups.
-Fold in the egg whites, 1/3 then 2/3, you want to lighten the paste. Then add the remaining portion.

-Don’t keep mixing; you don’t want to deflate it more than you need to.

-Fill the piping bag with no tip. Pipe into the baking cup.

-Put them in the deck oven and bake about 20 minutes.

-When they are done the tops will feel dry, have a nice rise, and some browning.

I was pleased with the Soufflé, they had a decent rise in the oven, but could have stood to be baked for a minute or two longer.

Butterscotch Sauce
8 oz Brown Sugar
2 oz Water
6 oz Cream
2 oz Butter4 oz Cream

Butterscotch Sauce
-Cook sugar and water to 240 degrees.

-Bring 6 oz cream to a boil.
-The sugar caramelizing on the stove will be very brown. Move the pot into a bowl of water because you don’t want to brown it any further.

-Add the butter. When adding the butter the caramel will start to feel sticky on the bottom.

-The second measure of cream is to help thin out the sauce if needed.
-The butter gives flavor and a nice texture to the caramel.
-Stir to make sure all the butter in incorporated.

-Add the cream and stir slowly.

-Let it cool down a little; you want to see how the color looks and the thickness. If it is too thick you can add more cream.

Fruit Coulis
7 oz Raspberries
3.5 oz Sugar
1 1/3 oz Water
½ oz Lemon Juice
4 tsp Liquor

Preparing Raspberry Coulis
-Bring the water and sugar to 240 degrees.
-Remove from heat and add the fruit puree, liquor, and lemon juice.

-Stir, cool, and use sauce for garnishing.

I used the raspberry coulis to garnish my plated panna cotta. It had a good viscosity to be used as a plated sauce and had a bright flavor that added to the dish.