chocolate! souffle! awesome.

I have made souffle and in the words of Michael Jackson it rocked my world. It truly did. So here's how to make it. It is very simple. There are just two crucial things to get right - firstly, you need to make sure you beat the egg yolk for long enough. Secondly, you need to make sure you beat the egg whites long enough. Oh and also do not use crappy baking chocolate. If you can't get your hands on those fantastic Lindt cooking chocolate buttons - they're not really buttons, they're quite chunky hexagons (but chocolate hexagons sounds a bit too Harry Potter to me) you can use the regular Lindt Excellence dark 70% cocoa chocolate.



What you need is:
About 1 tablespoon butter for dish
1/3 cup caster sugar, plus an extra tablespoon
3 eggs, separated
60 grams of good 70% cocoa chocolate, melted over boiling water
Pinch of salt
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar (or 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder as a substitute).



Here's how to make it:
1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees. Butter two soufflé dishes. They say you can use spray oil to coat them and you can, just don't use too much. Sprinkle each with sugar, invert it and tap to remove excess sugar.
2. Beat egg yolks with sugar until very light and very thick - this will take about five minutes. The texture has to be light and very creamy and a bit sticky.
3. Wash beaters well, then beat egg whites with salt and cream of tartar until whites hold soft peaks; continue to beat, gradually adding a tablespoon of caster sugar, until they are stiff. Stir a good spoonful of whites thoroughly into egg yolk mixture - you can do this stirring properly, you don't need to be careful. Then fold in remaining whites carefully, using a rubber spatula. Transfer to prepared soufflé dishes; if you want to bake souffle at a later stage you can cover and refrigerate until you are ready to bake.
4. Bake for about 20 minutes until the souffle has risen properly and the centre is still gooey. Serve immediately.