souffle – FoodWatcher

My Top Soufflé Secrets

The word soufflé in French means breath, which is an excellent name for these light as air treats. They’re easy and fun to make, can go from thought to table in 30 minutes and the ingredients are cheap and readily available (almost every grocery store has eggs). The only hard part is accepting that they must be eaten immediately, there’s no way around it. A…

The word soufflé in French means breath, which is an excellent name for these light as air treats. They’re easy and fun to make, can go from thought to table in 30 minutes and the ingredients are cheap and readily available (almost every grocery store has eggs). The only hard part is accepting that they must be eaten immediately, there’s no way around it.

A savory soufflé makes an excellent weeknight meal when the fridge is a little bare, either by itself or served with a little side salad, and it’s a great way to use up any herbs or that last piece of cheese that’s been hanging around a little too long. I really enjoy serving a sweet soufflé for dessert when we have guests as it’s full of flavour but doesn’t leave you feeling heavy when you leave the table.

Below I’m sharing my top tips and tricks, plus my favourite raspberry soufflé recipe, and I hope you’ll try out this this wonderful French dish.

– Emily

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Souffles Aren’t Scary—At Least, Not With Sohla by Your Side

Every month, in Off-Script With Sohla, pro chef and flavor whisperer Sohla El-Waylly will introduce you to a must-know cooking technique—and then teach you how to detour toward new adventures.

Soufflé recipes often seem like they’ve been written by …

Every month, in Off-Script With Sohla, pro chef and flavor whisperer Sohla El-Waylly will introduce you to a must-know cooking technique—and then teach you how to detour toward new adventures.

Soufflé recipes often seem like they've been written by an overbearing parent. Don't open the oven door! Don’t deflate the egg whites! No loud music! And for goodness sake, stop dancing! I have a much more positive relationship with soufflés. And once you learn the fundamental techniques (and how to riff on them), you will too.

Romance in Paris

Hello – Emily here! Whether single or in a relationship, I’ve always loved Valentine’s Day. My favorite color is pink, it reminds me my birthday is around the corner and if nothing else, chocolates and champagne will soon be on sale. I was single on Valentine’s Day every year until I turned 29, however I never felt alone and I never failed to celebrate in my…

Hello – Emily here!

Whether single or in a relationship, I’ve always loved Valentine’s Day. My favorite color is pink, it reminds me my birthday is around the corner and if nothing else, chocolates and champagne will soon be on sale. I was single on Valentine’s Day every year until I turned 29, however I never felt alone and I never failed to celebrate in my own small way, usually with pink champagne and heart-shaped Neufchatel cheese.

The first year I was in a relationship on February 14th, instead of a romantic dinner-a-deux I decided to spread the love and organized (and cooked) a pop-up dinner for 47 guests. It was a huge success, measured by the flurry of new relationships which started that night, in a utilitarian warehouse in East London. My boyfriend on the other hand was no help, though; he got drunk and threw little potatoes at the guests as they left.

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Cheese Souffle

The word soufflé used to strike terror in the heart of cooks far and wide. I never got that memo, though, and one of the first things I ever baked was a chocolate soufflé when I was less than sixteen years old, from my mother’s copy of The Settlement Cookbook, the 1951 edition. The ingredient list is pretty concise; looking at the book now, there…

The word soufflé used to strike terror in the heart of cooks far and wide. I never got that memo, though, and one of the first things I ever baked was a chocolate soufflé when I was less than sixteen years old, from my mother’s copy of The Settlement Cookbook, the 1951 edition. The ingredient list is pretty concise; looking at the book now, there are two chocolate soufflé recipes in it – one with four ingredients and the other with six.

The author explains how to put the soufflés together with only four or five concise sentences. There are no mixing bowl or baking dish sizes given, and chocolate is just listed as “chocolate.” There’s no mention of whether it’s bittersweet, semisweet, or unsweetened chocolate. (There are also no substitutions for any ingredients offered, and storage instructions weren’t included, presumably because people just figured that out for themselves.) It’s fascinating how times have changed in terms of how recipes are written today.

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Salzburger Nockerl

When I saw the cover of Alpine Cooking, before it came out, it quickly rose to the top of the list of books I needed to get my hands on. I was fortunate to get a preview when I was asked to write a quote for the book jacket, and was thrilled to find the inside of the book was even more compelling than the cover. While it’s hard to compete with the Matterhorn, pictures of locals contemplating a melted cheese sandwich, or a wooden châlet terrace with place settings soon to be heaped with hearty mountain fare, brought the alps right to me.

Covering Italy, Austria, Switzerland, and France, author Meredith Erickson, takes us through cheese caves, ski slopes, restaurants, fondue pots, snow-caked ski boots, and villages, that are all part of the European alps. As Meredith noted in the book, in the winter, if you’re cooking in the alps, there isn’t a lot of fresh produce available in the winter. In fact, there may not be any at all. (Those who live in winter climates, who shop their local farmers market can relate to five months of squash, potatoes, and onions.) So jam fills in.

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