A Chocolate Soufflé Salute
September 2, 2004

In celebration of the long and luscious life of Julia Child, who died a few weeks ago, I tweaked and recorded my recipe for chocolate soufflé. Julia’s wonderful cookbooks, TV shows and potent personality introduced and interpreted, for new and seasoned cooks alike, the secrets and steps of classic French cooking. This soufflé is simple and absolutely yummy served warm, or cold the next day. It falls somewhere between a mousse, a brownie, a pudding, and a cake- what could be better? To learn more about the fundamentals of a soufflé, I suggest you read Julia’s seminal book Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

Chocolate Soufflé Salute
- 2 teaspoons unsalted butter, room temperature, for prepping ramekins
- one fourth cup superfine sugar
- 4 Tablespoons of unsalted butter, room temperature
- one-third cup sugar
- 6 ounces best quality semisweet chocolate chips
- 4 eggs, separated
- one-fourth teaspoon cream of tartar

Heat oven to 325 degrees. Use 2 teaspoons of butter to coat the inside of 8- four ounce ramekins. Dust with superfine sugar and tap out excess. Set them into a sheet cake pan.

In the top of a double boiler over simmering water, stir remaining butter and chocolate together until melted. Remove from heat.

In a medium bowl with an electric beater, beat egg whites and tartar until frothy. Gradually beat in sugar until mixture forms stiff peaks. Whisk egg yolks into the chocolate mixture. With a flat, wide spatula, fold one third of the egg white mixture into the chocolate. Fold in the remaining egg whites, but do not over mix.

Divide the batter among the ramekins. Place pan in the oven and gently fill it with water until it comes half way up the ramekins (this is called a bain-marie.) Bake soufflés for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and serve warm or anytime.

Cream Topping
- 1 cup heavy cream, chilled
- 1 Tablespoon confectioner’s sugar
- one-half teaspoon vanilla or almond flavoring
- 16 fresh raspberries (optional)

Beat cream together with sugar and flavoring until stiff peaks form, top soufflés with a dollop of cream and berries.

Kim Dannies is a graduate of La Varenne Cooking School in France. She lives in Williston, VT with her husband, Jeff, and three college–aged daughters who come and go. ©2008