Cooking with Karl: Chocolate Soufflé

Chocolate soufflé, a classic French dessert, hints at pure indulgence while providing comfort, warmth and chocolatey deliciousness. Fancy, yet easy to make, with a cake-like exterior and a custardy interior, chocolate soufflé is the perfect grand finale to a fine meal. 

This dessert, served straight out of the oven, dusted with powdered sugar and accompanied by a dollop of whipped cream and a few berries, will impress any chocolate fan and is great for dinner parties.

Here’s how to make it:

Ingredients

1/2 C unsalted butter 

8 oz. 60% bittersweet chocolate 

Pinch of salt 

1 T vanilla extract 

6 egg yolks at room temperature 

8 egg whites at room temperature

1/2 t cream of tartar

6 T sugar

Directions

1. Melt butter over a double boiler setup. Add chopped- up chocolate and melt. Once melted, remove from heat, whisk in salt and vanilla extract. Rest for 15 minutes to cool. (This step is very important!)
2. Once cooled, whisk in egg yolks one at a time, then set aside.
3. Preheat the oven to 400° F.
4. Generously butter entire inside of six 6 oz. ramekins. Coat the entire inside of buttered ramekins generously with table sugar.
5. Add room-temperature egg whites to a separate bowl in a stand mixer. Begin mixing egg whites with whisk attachment on low. Add in cream of tartar. Increase speed and mix until soft peaks form. Begin to slowly add in sugar, mixing on high speed. This is ready when egg whites form shiny stiff peaks.
6. Gently fold 1/4 of the whipped egg whites into the chocolate. Gently fold the rest of the whipped egg whites half at a time into the chocolate with a plastic spatula.
7. Add mix to ramekins, filling to top, then scraping off to level. Run your finger around the inside top edge to create a gap at the top. This allows the soufflé to rise up out of the ramekins. Clean off outsides of ramekins. Place filled ramekins on a cookie sheet and place into a 400° F oven.
8. Bake for 13 - 15 minutes or until the batter rises an inch up over the top of the ramekins and the top is barely jiggly.
9. Serve and enjoy immediately, dusted lightly with powdered sugar.