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Summary

Preparation Time: 30 mins.
Cook Time: 20 mins.
Servings: 2
Meal type: Dessert
Grocery Cost: $19.50 (If you have to buy every ingredient from scratch – but you only use a tiny bit of the butter, sugar, and tartar)

Recipe Rating:  

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup bitter sweet chocolate ($4.00)
• 1 tbsp + 1 tsp butter ($3.00)
• 2 tbsp + 1 tsp 35% cream ($3.00)
• 2 egg yolks ($3.50)
• 3 egg whites
• 2 tbsp + 2 tsp sugar ($2.00)
• Dash of cream of tartar ($4.00)

The sugar, chocolate, and butter. 1/2 cup of chocolate chips = 76g, so what you see there is 76g of various chocolate bars I was trying to use up. I don’t think you have to be too exact with the amount of chocolate.

A dash of cream of tartar – the tartar is to add acidity to the eggs whites so they fluff up when you beat them. If you don’t have cream of tartar you can also substitute with lemon juice (1/4 tsp per egg white) or salt (a few pinches) – in that order of preference. You should use around 1/8 tsp of tartar per egg white. Also apparently you can beat egg whites in a copper bowl and then you don’t have to use any acid in it…but who has a copper bowl lying around? Not me!

Eggs should be room temperature. If you try to beat cold eggs they don’t fluff up as nice. Here I put my eggs in warm water to get them to room temp quicker.

Method

1. Preheat oven to 375F
2. Combine butter, cream, and chocolate and melt in a stainless steel bowl over simmering water. Once melted, take mixture off heat, add egg yolks and mix with a whisk and set aside

Here is the second batch of melted chocolate – the first one didn’t work out because I forgot to turn down the boiling water from MAX to medium – if chocolate gets too hot, the solids separate from the fat, making it lumpy and unusable.

Adding in the egg yolks.
3. In a separate bowl, beat egg whites with cream of tartar until soft peaks are formed. Add sugar and whisk until peaks become stiff

This is an example of a soft peak. When you lift the beaters out of the egg whites, the whites form a peak but the top droops down instead of standing up straight.

These are stiff peaks – note how the top of the peak is straight and no longer droops down.
4. Slowly fold egg whites into chocolate. Do this in three parts so egg whites don’t deflate

Always spoon the eggs whites into the chocolate, so the heavier chocolate doesn’t deflate the egg whites.

To fold the two together, you use a spatula to move the chocolate from the bottom of the bowl over the egg whites. Do this gently and don’t over mix!

After everything has been folded together, it looks like the above.
5. Pour mixture into a 60 oz. ceramic ramekin. The mixture should reach just below the rim of the ramekin

I guess my egg whites didn’t fluff up enough, because this is only a 30oz ramekin.
6. Place soufflé on a baking tray on the middle rack of the oven and bake for 20-25 min or until soufflé is puffed up but still jiggles in the centre

The soufflé puffs up while it’s baking…careful, it deflates very quickly!
7. Serve immediately

Serving Tips:

Tip #1: Serve with ice cream and fresh berries as an accompaniment
Tip #2: Add a splash of brandy or orange liqueur for extra flavour

Results

Reds Bistro & Wine bar, located on Adelaide Street West, Executive Chef Michael Steh is offering a special 6-course His and Her Tasting menu, available on Friday, February 12 and Saturday, February 13. The menu is designed for sharing and features several unique and delicious offerings such as Duck Confit Poutine, Slow Roasted Beef Tenderloin and Hot Smoked B.C. Steelhead Trout. The menu is available for just $69 person (suggested wine pairings are an additional $30 per person). Diners can also look forward to sweetening the night by sampling Ontario Ice Wine from reds’ award winning wine cellar paired with items from the restaurant’s dessert or cheese menus.

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