Chocolate Souffle Trial no.1

This is an idea that I just came across, which is to post all the food I cook on the blog to keep track of what I have been doing. For today, I am learning how to make a Chocolate Souffle. Yes, souffle is simple, yet difficult. Why is it difficult ? A good souffle should be round with high straight sides, partly gooey in the centre (or a bit drier, based on individual preference), not taste too eggy or too cake-like and should be as light as possible, and has a smooth surface and not cracked. I learnt about the basic of souffle and tried some simple recipe ( and I will keep modifying the recipe ). Trust me, the result that I got was an epic fail, but it's will be better, The recipe that I used was ( the most basic recipe ):

100g dark chocolate, finely grated

40g cocoa powder

40g corn flour

100ml water

1t lemon juice

30g sugar

4 egg white

This is the chocolate that I have grated finely ( 100g ). It was a really work out, good enough to burn some calories before eating the souffle.

Heat up 100ml water in a sauce pan ,on low-heat. Add the flour and cocoa powder into the pan and mix. Cook into a paste.

Brush the ramekin with butter. Make sure every side of the ramekin is well-coated with butter. I added about half table spoon of grated chocolate to create a chocolate layer on the ramekin as seen in the picture.

Honestly, I had over beaten the egg white ( I whisked manually

by hand, and still I over-beat.WINNER! ). I added the lemon juice after beating the egg whites a few times. When it has reached soft peaks, I added the 30g sugar to give glossiness to the meringue.

I folded in the meringue and the chocolate paste till smooth. Then, I added the finely grated chocolate and folded everything to combine. Next, I poured the mixture into the ramekin and gave a few taps on the table to make sure there was no air pocket underneath or in the center of the mixture in the ramekin. Lastly, I put the ramekin into the oven and baked at 180 degree Celcius for 10mins.

The mixture raised after a few minutes of baking.

I am not trying to deny or giving excuses, but to be honest, this is how a failed-souffle looked like. A proper souffle does not rise like this. This looks more like a backside than a crown-like-souffle.

See, I had my souffle's surface cracked, and you can see the centre part is moist which is quite right. This is the end result I got.

For the taste, and characteristic that I got from the end results are as follow:

• The amount of the sugar I added was just nice and the sweetness was just right.
• Gooey in the center.
• The texture was quite light but as I dug deeper into the ramekin, the texture became much more like a cake (FAILED!).
• The souffle did not raise properly, which looked like a butt rather than a crown
• Crack on the surface.
• Lack of chocolate flavour.

I actually made 2 portions of it and gave the other 1 to my maid. I purposely baked the other one for 20 mins, and she told me that it was bitter (I believed it was burnt). Lesson learnt: although you burnt your food, your maid may still wanna try.

This is a properly-raised souffle by Gordon Ramsay:

This is just amazing.

The key for the best souffle is to avoid as much fat as possible as it will break the air bubbles in the meringue and cause the souffle to raise improperly. However, many recipes call for egg yolk or butter which contains a lot of fat and yet it has a better result ( or I am just noob at making souffle ). It is quite contradicting, but there is no give up. I will keep modifying the recipe and test every possible way to make a much better souffle. Hopefully by the 3rd trial, I will get the best result, and it will be posted here. Overall, today's souffle trial WAS AN EPIC FAIL! Feel embarrassed ? Of course not! Otherwise I would not have posted the pictures and the results. There is a long way to go.

All comments and advice will be welcome. Thank you guys.