I invited my mom for Mother's Day brunch. My brother and niece came from out of town for the day to help celebrate. I knew I wanted to make cheese souffle. It has been one of mom's favourite things that I make for a long time and I haven't made it for years. Pain au chocolat has been on my list of things I want to make for a while. The last time I made my own puff pastry was in cooking school. It was a group project and we had machines to roll out the dough. I didn't get a chance to get hands on experience as much as I would have liked, so I'm going to say I've never made it before. It is time consuming, but not at all difficult. It's probably because Julie made the instructions so simple. They turned out wonderfully!
To round out the menu I served ham, bacon and offered some fruit and veggies. To drink we had fruit punch topped with club soda to make it fizzy and I bought some Caramilk liquer to add to coffee.
Here's the souffle recipe;
1/4 cup flour
1 cup milk
Stir in medium saucepan until blended. Stir constantly over hight heat until thickened and smooth; stirring constantly cook 1 minute. Remove from heat and add:
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp dry mustard
1 pinch cayenne powder
1 cup shredded cheese
Stir until cheese is melted and sauce is smooth.
Beat in;
6 egg yolks
one at a time, beating well after each; set aside.
In a separate bowl, beat;
6 egg whites
until foamy. Add a pinch of cream of tartar. Continue beating until whites hold soft peaks. Stir a quarter of the whites into cheese sauce, then fold cheese sauce into remaining whites. Fold until mostly blended, it's ok if it's a little streaky. Pour into a a casserole dish with straight sides.
Bake at 375F for 30 minutes. Serve right away.
Tips on beating egg whites; You have probably heard lots of dire warnings about separating your eggs so carefully as to get not one wee spec of yolk in your whites. You have probably heard that if this happens, the whole thing is ruined and you need to throw everything away and start again. True confession time; I got egg yolk in my egg whites on Mother's Day. When I beat them, they didn't get as much volume as they would have otherwise. I threw nothing away. I whipped the whites until I got as much volume as I thought I could. I knew because I continued beating and checking, beating and checking until I was making no progress. Other times, when I have made this recipe the souffle got a lot taller than it did this time. No one at the table clucked their tongue at my substandard souffle! Rather, they were thrilled that I made a souffle. I dare say your guests will have the same reaction. Cook with confidence and if you mess up, go with it, serve it to your guests with style and NEVER apologize. Make a note to yourself to do it differently next time if you like, but do not apologize; it ruins the experience for your guests. If you say that you ruined the souffle because of this or that, they will feel bad for you and feel obligated to assure you that it's wonderful. Who needs the pressure? The souffle was cheesy and eggy and really delicious. They they raved and we had a wonderful meal.
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