Sue Flay, Bobby’s mom?

Inspired by Jamie at MyBakingAddiction, I went the way of the haughty taughty overpriced but elegant grown-up restaurants and made myself a chocolate orange soufflé for lunch. Its accompaniment, soy sloppy joes. Yes, laugh as you may.

This is my 1st soufflé ever, baked or eaten. It is easier than pie to whip up, and has a nice but not overpowering chocolate flavor. 3 whole eggs rather than 6 whites and 3 yolks, what a great thing! I really hate unbalanced egg ratios. Storing leftover egg parts isn’t terrible, but I appreciate a recipe with no leftovers destined for the freezer or the morning omelet.

All in all, you can impress company with this souffle. This can be prepped ahead and baked 24hrs. later. See my step-by-step tutorial to have your friends drooling through dinner and singing your praises all over town.

My rating for the recipe is 7 as I prefer a more intense chocolate flavor. I’d rather indulge in a chocolate crème brûleé. For a more chocolatey soufflé, try this recipe from Real Simple. (Hooray for balanced egg ratios!)

3 eggs, separated
1/3 c. sugar, divided
2 oz. bittersweet chocolate (or your fave), melted
pinch salt
1/8 t. vanilla
1 T. orange liqueur

Preheat to 350F.

Butter 5 1c. ramekins and coat with a thin layer of sugar. Think grease and flour, using sugar instead of flour.

Melt chocolate over double boiler or in microwave in 30 sec. intervals, stirring between. Add vanilla, salt, and liquer.

Separate eggs.

Whip egg whites to foamy then slowly add in 1 T. sugar. Whip to stiff peaks, almost dry. I opted to unconventionally prep whites 1st so that I didn’t have to wash the beaters going from yolks to whites.

Beat yolks with remaining sugar until lighten in color, fluff up, and ribbon from the beaters.

Stir chocolate into yolk mixture.

Slowly fold in 1/3 of the whites into chocolate yolks to lighten. In 2 more intervals fold in remaining whites.

Pour into prepared ramekins and fill only 1/2 full. Place on a baking sheet and bake 18-20 minutes or until risen and cracks appear mostly dry. Dust with powdered sugar.

Mine weren’t quite done, as I’d suspected, but I was afraid they’d burn, so I took them out early and they went from this

to this.

Tasty, but not as voluptuous. Think Keira Knightly vs. Kendra; poised and elegant.

For more soufflé recipes and tips, visit here.