A 3 kilo (6.6 lb) bag of 70% cacao Guanaja chocolate. Oh. My. God.
OK, I cheated, though I prefer to look at it as creative cooking. I combined Sugar High Friday #13: The Dark Side and IMBB #20: Soufflés into one uber-post. Kind of like the one-pot-meals. Kidding. Anyways... This cheating, er... creative culinary expression, led to a wallet-gouging spree through Dehillerin and G Detou, a veritable wonderland of copper pots and cooking supplies, where I went in search of passion fruit puree and some chocolate in anticipation of these 2 momentous events.
Some chocolate... as in 3 KILOS (6.6 pounds) of chocolate and 45 euros later......! Like the prunes, God forbid I do anything moderately. Pierre Hermé uses this exact chocolate to make some of his showstopping delights and he purchases this size bag! Now he makes, oh I don’t know, thousands of pounds of chocolates a week so who do I think I am buying this monstrous bag o’ love?
Well it was between a mediocre generic 1 kilo box of chocolate or the above mentioned indulgence. Wasn’t much of a decision so I staggered out of G Detou with my near 7 pound bag of chocolate in one hand and various and sundry dangerous looking devices I’d picked up at Dehillerin in the other...
...including an Emile Henri soufflé dish in which to concoct these chocolate clouds... I figured I would use all the chocolate over the course of a year and could therefore amortize it to 4 euros a month. Pas mal (not bad)! Hey, I can justify just about anything ;-) even a near 7 pound bag of chocolate which is so beyond reason it shuns explanation
So back to the culinary creativity. One of the most memorable meals I’ve had in the US was at Vong and we ended the evening with a Passionfruit Soufflé that I can taste to this day. It was truly one of the most spectacular desserts I’ve ever had. Dreamy, intoxicating, and completely enchanting. I wanted to make a passion fruit soufflé and I also wanted to start amortizing my near 7 pound bag of chocolate so I came up with the brilliant idea (well I thought it was brilliant) to combine Sugar High Friday with Soufflés a’ Burnin’ Sunday and voila: Chocolate Passionfruit Soufflé! Now my soufflé looks a little worse for wear but you should have seen the first one. Yikes! However, thanks to fabulous ingredients, the taste was delicious with the deep unctuous bitter chocolate cut with tangy passion fruit that sent me swooning.
inside & seeds of passion fruit.....note the triangle shaped
symmetrical areas where the seeds are attached
So to make this baby, I followed that standard recipe for Soufflé au Chocolat and added about 1/3 cup of passion fruit purée to the mixture. Mine came out a bit funky because the oven was a bit too hot and I was rushing and didn’t completely fold in the egg whites so a few egg white lumps here and there but certainly nothing that stopped us from eating it...yes before our dinner!
Soufflé au Chocolat et Fruit de Passion
1 oz flour
1 oz butter + 1 oz for dish
4 ½ oz milk
3 ½ oz chocolate, finely chopped
3 egg yolks
3 egg whites
½ oz sugar + some for dish
10 ml passion fruit purée
1. preheat oven to 400F / 200C / #6
2. rub 1 oz of butter all over the inside of the soufflé dish. coat with a thin layer of sugar. place in fridge until ready to fill.
3. in a pot, melt the butter on medium heat, then add the flour. stir to combine thoroughly. this is called a “roux” – a standard thickener for soups, stews and sauces.
4. take the pot off the heat and add the milk. stir with a wooden spoon to combine thoroughly.
5. add the chocolate and stir until completely melted.
6. add the egg yolks one at a time combining each completely before adding the next.
7. stir in the passion fruit purée.
8. in a separate bowl, whip the egg whites until they form stiff peaks.
9. gently fold with a spatula ¼ of the egg whites at a time into the chocolate mixture.
10. pour into buttered/sugared molds and bake for 15 minutes for a large soufflé dish (half the time for the small ramekin-sized soufflé dishes.
11. serve immediately with a big spoon! bon appetit!
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