Chocolate Souffle

Ingredients

Serves 4

For the dishes

Unsalted butter for greasing

Finely grated Chocolate

Crème pâtissière

• 2 tbsp plain flour
  • 2 tsp caster sugar
  • ½ tsp cornflour
  • 1 medium egg yolk
  • 1 medium whole egg
  • 4 tbsp milk
  • 5 tbsp double cream
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 75g good-quality dark chocolate preferably 70% cocoa solids, broken into pieces

Egg white mixture

• 6 medium egg whites
  • 3/4 cups caster sugar (or splenda)
  • Serving:
• Ice cream or cream, to serve

Instructions:

Take four 200ml soufflé dishes and brush them completely with softened butter. Chill the dishes for 5 mins, then, apply a second coat as before. Tip a little grated chocolate into each dish, roll the dish around tilting it as you do so it is evenly lined all round. (you can use oil spray instead of butter).

For the crème patisserie, mix the flour, sugar and cornflour. Put 1 egg yolk and 1 whole egg into a bowl, stir, then beat in half of the flour mixture to give a smooth paste. Tip in the rest of the flour mixture and mix well. Pour the milk and cream into a pan and bring just to the boil. Remove from the heat. Add the chocolate and beat until it is melted and smooth with no lumps.

Gradually stir hot chocolate mix into paste. Return to pan. Cook, stirring, over a medium-low heat for 5 mins to a smooth, thick paste. Remove from the heat. Leave until cold, beating occasionally with a wire whisk.

Heat oven to 190C/375F.

In a separate bowl. Whisk the egg whites to soft peaks with an electric whisk. Sprinkle in the sugar as you are mixing. Keep whisking to give stiff, firm peaks to give volume to the soufflés.

Add to the crème patisserie the egg white carefully and slowly, (take care not to lose the volume); stir very gently not to lose the volume.

Spoon the mixture into the dishes to fill them by three-quarters, then gently press a spoon in to make sure it fills all the gaps if necessary. Fill the dishes to the top with the mixture, then bang each dish on to the surface so the mixture fills the sides.

Take a palette knife and pull it across the top of each dish so the mixture is completely flat. Take a little time to wipe any splashes off the outside of each dish, or they will burn on while cooking. So mixture won’t stick to the top of the mould, and to give a straight finish, go around the top edge of the mixture with your finger.

Sprinkle a little grated chocolate in the centre, then bake the soufflés for 12-17 mins - until when the soufflés rises by about two thirds of their original height and jiggle when moved, but be set on top.

To serve, make a small dip with a spoon in the centre of each, then pour in single cream or add a spoonful of ice cream.