WARM RUM & VANILLA SOUFFLE

Hi guys,

Keeping on  our cooking world exploration , we are going to lean over a classical but delicious Sweet soufflé.

Soufflé are said to be very difficult to realize but with few tips you'll be shown,  you 'll find  the technique at your reach.

It 's important to notice that we have two big families in soufflés.

The vanilla, coffee, chocolate , almond , hazelnut  or pistachio "type" are made with a flavored Pastry ( or pâtissière) cream combined with whipped egg whites .

The second Type  are basically fruits soufflés ; made of mixed fruit purée combined with french or Italian meringue.

Today we 'll explore the Pastry cream base family soufflés.
As your are used to now , you will learn two new cooking techniques:


Cream & mix 6: Pastry "patissiere "cream **

Cream & mix 8: Sweet hot soufflé ***

Pastry basics 1 : whipping and mixing egg white **

The Pâtissière Cream  (Cream & mix 6: Pastry "patissiere "cream **)

Ingredients (serving 8 pax):

Semi skimmed milk                       50 CL     -    1PINT

Egg yolk                                        10 to 12

Caster sugar                                   220 GR     -  7,5 OZ 

Extra Vanilla pod                          1

Flour                                              100 GR  -     3,5  OZ

TECHNIQUE

1. Pour milk in a medium size pan  with the vanilla pod split in half . With the tip of office knife, scrape all the vanilla seeds and mix well to the milk.
2. Bring to boil .
3. In a pastry bowl , whisk well egg yolk  and sugar until you get a fluffy consistency then add sieved flour  and mix well.
4. When the milk is boiling, pour slowly on the egg yolk , flour and sugar mix while whisking.
5. Pour the mix back in the pan and keep on whisking on medium fire until it boils again. Then your Pâtissière will have the  right thickness. Leave the vanilla skins in the cream the get more  flavor later on.Add a dash of rum if you wish ; it latches very well with vanilla.
6. In the case you may want to realize a pistachio or  chocolate  soufflé; you can add the flavoring elements a this stage. 
7. Keep the Pâtissière  to cool down with a plastic/ paper wrap on top to avoid crusting. Some elder cooks use a bit of melted butter on the surface  for the same purpose. You are now ready with the cream.

IMPORTANT:  Make sure your Pâtissière as boiled on the stove! Otherwise it might lead to bad consistency  and  belly pains  due to uncooked  flour.

In the meantime your cream is cooling , you can skirt the soufflé moulds with melted butter and sprinkle in inside with caster sugar . This operation will avoid the soufflé to stick to your mould. A skirting spray will  be fine either.

The Whipped egg whites :Pastry basics 1 : whipping and mixing egg white **

( The Funny part ......)

Ingredients (serving 8 pax):

Egg White                                     16 units or  

Table salt                                      1 pinch                             

Caster sugar                                  20 GR     -   0,5 OZ

This technique is said to be very difficult  to realize but in fact it's not true if you pay attention to the following tips:

• use egg whites at room temperature( never use cold egg whites)
• use a pinch of salt  to help the whisking process ( it does really help)
• Whisk slowly at the beginning  and full speed and very end only ( especially with hand whisk!)
• Never stop the whisking process otherwise the eggs will be  kind of gritty and impossible to use.
• add a bit of caster sugar at the very end and whisk full speed for few seconds in order to give a tough consistency to the preparation. 
• Once  you are done . .... Don't whisk anymore!

Now , you almost ready with your soufflé ; your oven is turn on at 365°CF- 180°C.

Useful tip: bring  one inch - 2 cm of water to boil  in a large pan to help the rising of the soufflé. I'll show your haw in a second....

Moulding  and baking the soufflés

1. At this point, take your pastry cream  and remove the vanilla skins; whisk it few seconds to have a smooth and fluffy cream. 
2. Put your whisk away now to avoid mistakes!
3. Add the egg whites and mix well but very carefully( to avoid egg white collapsing)  with a spatula until you have a homogeneous soufflé mix.
4. Fill the mould  at 90% . The little available space will help the soufflé to rise properly.
5. Dip  the soufflés  bottom moulds in the  shallow boiling  water until they start rising; let's say 2 to 3 minutes.
6. Then carefully remove the soufflés from  water and bake them right away  . Do not open the oven's door ( for about 10 minutes for indiv. serving or 25 minutes for  for the bigger ones) until the soufflé it totally risen . 
7. Your soufflé is ready.... Sprinkle some ice sugar on top  and enjoy your Rum & Vanilla Soufflé !!!
8. Serve as quick as possible before , the soufflé collapses . That's it , you can make it with your own flavors and the technique will always be the same . I will show you in the next weeks how to realize the Fruit Family Soufflés......