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Embarassing Sweet Souffle failure

post #1 of 10
9/25/08 at 3:37pm
Thread Starter 
Yeah so I had one of these. They didn't look good and they collapsed quickly. They didn't taste too great either. They didn't get that light and airy look to the top of them, they were more rounded and the tops of them were kind of rubbery.

I made the sauce base in advance and waited until the last minute to do the whites. Not sure what happened here. I made a pretty big batch so maybe something happened in the middle of all of that.

Any souffle tips? Recipes? Do you like to use flour or none at all?

What can I do in advance?
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post #2 of 10
9/26/08 at 8:03am
Thread Starter 
Yeah so I did some research and most souffle recipes call for flour. The chef I work with mentioned that he uses only cream of tartar. I also found a few that is just basically a puffed oven omelet. Sounds good.
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post #3 of 10
9/26/08 at 1:03pm
Cream of tartar is a powdered acid, it is not a starch nor does it have gluten so it doesn't serve any purpose that flour would normally serve... essentially that does make it sound like a puffed up omelette in a ramekin. I do like to mix some of the sugar that would normally go into the pastry cream mixture into the egg whites so that the pseudo-meringue is easier to fold into the cream mixture, which I believe makes it more stable.

You can get a beautiful levelled top by filling your ramekin to the top, smoothing the excess off with a spatula then wiping the rim of the ramekin of a bit of the mixture.

I have a very reliable souffle recipe in my notes but I'll offer it when I have it with me.
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post #4 of 10
9/26/08 at 8:26pm
Thread Starter 
That would be great. Yeah, I didn't fill it up enough. I was trying to allow room for puff, but it was too much.

I really need to get a handle on this.
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post #5 of 10
9/27/08 at 2:22pm
Here's a recipe I used with good success, though to be honest I'm not sure if I wrote everything down correctly. If I have the opportunity I will test it out as well and confirm.

If I recall should make around 4 or 5 smallish souffles

Pastry cream base

30 g eggs
60 g egg yolks
250 mL milk
130 mL cream
60 g sugar
65 g flour
1 tablespoon vanilla extract or vanilla pod.

Egg Whites Base

50 g sugar
70 g egg whites

Preheat oven to 400 F, or around 380 F on convection speed low

butter ramekins and coat all around with sugar.

Heat milk and cream mixture on stove until scalding temperature.

Create the pastry cream by Whisking yolks, eggs and sugar until ribbony then add flour until incorporated.

Temper yolk mixture with liquid then return to the stovetop and cooked until thick. Allow to cool.

Use the remaining sugar and whites to make a meringue.

Fold whites into pastry cream mixture then top up ramekins as I suggested in the previous post. Bake in the oven for around 15 minutes or until the tops are good and golden brown.

You can also add fruit purees and other flavourings to enhance the souffle.

Filling the ramekin up to the top and wiping the rim will give the souffle a beautiful risen up look that won't cause it to collapse or look flared.
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post #6 of 10
9/27/08 at 7:32pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks!

I Was thinking, does any pastry cream base work? I use cornstarch in mine, and then it would be flourless. I'm cool with the flour, but it was requested.
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post #7 of 10
9/28/08 at 12:34am
What type of soufflé are you making? A crème patissiere is common for sweet soufflés however I have found that a chocolate soufflé is better with a béchamel base.

Crème Patissiere
6 egg yolks
125g (1/2 cup) caster sugar
30g (1/4 cup) cornflour (cornstarch)
10g (14oz) plain flour
560ml (2/14 cups) milk
1 vanilla pod
15g (1/2 oz) butter

Whisk together the egg yolks and half the sugar until pale and creamy. Sift in the cornflour and flour and mix together well.

Put the milk, remaining sugar and vanilla pod in a saucepan. Bring just to the boil, then strain over the egg yolk mixture, stirring continuously. Pour back into a clean saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring constantly, it will be lumpy at first but will become smooth as you stir. Boil for 2 mins, then stir in the butter and leave to cool. This will keep for a couple of days in the fridge if you transfer to a clean bowl and cover with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming.


I have made very good raspberry soufflés with crème pat;

Put a baking tray in the oven at 190C to heat up (Sorry I don’t know the Fahrenheit equivalent) and prepare the ramekins as Blueicus' post. Use half the quantity of crème pat and warm in a bain marie. Take 14oz raspberries and 3oz of sugar, blitz in a blender, then pass the puree to sieve out the seeds. Add the crème pat to the raspberry puree and whisk together.

Beat 8 egg whites to firm peaks, I like to add a pinch of cream of tartar here, I find it stabilises the mixture but that is a matter of preference. Gradually whisk 2tbs of sugar into the whites until stiff and glossy. Whisk a third of the whites into the into your raspberry mixture to loosen it, then fold in the remainder until fully incorporated.

Pour into ramekins or whatever dish you are using and tap a couple of times on the table to make sure there is no air trapped in the bottom. Level the top and run your thumb around the inside rim of the dish. Bake for about 12 mins depending on your oven, the top might be slightly brown. To finish, dust with icing sugar.

These are beautiful and pretty fail-safe, I would use this recipe for most fruit flavours. If you want my chocolate soufflé recipe, just reply and I will gladly post it.
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post #8 of 10
5/5/09 at 1:48am
Thread Starter 
Thank you very much!
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post #9 of 10
5/13/09 at 2:59am
i worked with a pastry chef that uses a coulis base. no pastry cream or bachemel. basically taking a fruit puree, lets say passionfruit, sweetening it up slightly, (you want it to still be on the tart side), and thickening it up with cornstarch until it's thick enough to squeeze out of a bottle and still look "syrupy". she whips the whites with some sugar and pours in the coulis and adjusts the sweetness with either the sugar or coulis until its just right.

then spoons it into buttered ramekins that have been in the freezer and into the oven at 350 convection until done. i swear the souffle was taller than the ramekin itself when it came out! there are no measurements for this souffle as everything she taught me was by taste. she said that fat inhibits the souffle to rise. but a chocolate souffle would be different and needs to have a pastry cream base.

btw this recipe is perfect for a restaurant setting because the souffle mix can be re-whipped as needed because there's no fat as long as the whites were not over whipped to begin with. so cornstarch it is. also makes the perfect top hat effect :lips:
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post #10 of 10
5/13/09 at 3:38am
If all he uses is tartar,remind me not to eat it. Your correct he is not making a souffle , sound like a pancake style omelette that rises. You must have flour or starch or thickener as this gives the dish stability and structure that will help hold it up. I still go by old way flour Bechamel base for non sweet.:D
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