Ham and Cheese Egg Soufflé - A Delicious Soufflé Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to a good soufflé? ›

Ensure all your ingredients, especially the eggs, are at room temperature. Do not use cold eggs. Prepare and grease the soufflé dishes before you start making the soufflé mixture. Preheat the oven so once the soufflé is made and in the dish, it can go directly into the oven.

According to La Varenne Practique (a timeless masterwork you should consider owning if learning more about classic French cooking appeals), there are only a few critical points to perfecting a souffle: a base of the right consistency, stiff egg whites, and the careful folding of the base and the beaten whites.

If the egg whites are not mixed enough, they will be too heavy to rise, but if they are over-whipped they will collapse in the oven. Finally, and most problematically, any cross-contamination between yolks and whites will cause the whole concoction to collapse, which is the bane of many dessert chefs' days.

The key is in the ingredients. The lighter the base mixture, the longer it will hold. The most flexible mixtures are those made for light dessert souffles like lemon, lime and raspberry. They can easily be refrigerated for two to three hours.

A soufflé is made up of a base (usually white sauce or creme patissiere enriched with egg yolks), a flavor (added to the base) and whipped egg whites gently folded in and baked in the oven. While it's cooking, the air trapped in the egg whites expands, causing it to rise.

If you like a soufflé with a custardy center, as I do, a hotter oven is more likely to give you that result. If you use a lower oven temperature, like 350°F or 375°F (175°C or 190°C), you'll get slightly less of a rise, and the soufflé will brown on the outside more slowly.

You technically could — egg whites will still whip to stiff peaks without cream of tartar — but we highly recommend including it whenever it's called for in a recipe. While developing those lofty Japanese Soufflé Pancakes, Molly quickly realized how integral a stabilizer was to create the perfect pancake texture.

Bake in preheated 375° F (190° C) oven until puffed and lightly browned, 20 to 25 minutes or until done. Serve immediately.

Pancake soufflés can fall for several reasons, including over-mixing the batter, opening the oven door too often, or cooking the soufflé at too high of a temperature.

Some souffle dishes have a collar, and some people add one with tin foil in order to make the souffle rise higher. If your dish has a collar, fill it all the way to the top of the pan. If it doesn't have one, three quarters of the way will do. Those souffles that collapse when a pin drops are too dry.

Can you eat a soufflé the next day? ›

The recipe for the original souffle came from here, but if you really want to taste what my childlike imagination conjured all those years ago, I suggest you let them cool, cover with plastic wrap, and keep in the fridge overnight. The next day, top with some berries and a big plop of whipped cream.

Souffle Logic: A soufflé is made up of three elements: A base sauce enriched with egg yolks (pastry cream for sweet, béchamel for savory), a filling (anything from cheese to chocolate), and whipped egg whites.

If your Soufflé Cake tastes eggy, it's either undercooked or overcooked. Make sure that you don't increase the temperature, this will also make the eggs rubbery and taste eggy. Stick to a low temperature.

Egg yolks get whisked in for even more richness, and coagulation—as the eggs cook, they set, just like when you fry or scramble them, allowing the soufflé to hold onto its loft for at least some time before deflating.