Cheese soufflé

Serves: 4

Preparing a cheese soufflé is an art: make your attempt with this easy recipe for the famous French dish.

Ingredients

• 70g + 10g for the serving dish of butter
• 70g of flour
• 300g of milk
• 120g of Gruyére
• 3 egg yolk
• 5 egg white
• Salt to taste
• Pepper to taste
• Nutmeg to taste

Directions

1Sauté the flour in the butter, as if you were preparing a béchamel sauce.

2Add the milk and cook, stirring, for 5-8 minutes.

3Add a pinch of salt, pepper, nutmeg and let cook, stirring every so often.

4Shred the cheese into strips and add it slowly to the mixture.

5Add an egg yolk, one at a time.*

6Heat the oven to 180°C.

7Butter all the surface of the soufflé serving dish (or 6 individual serving dishes) and then lightly sprinkle with flour.

8Beat the egg whites until stiff and then incorporate them carefully. **

9Pour the soufflé mixture into 6 small Pyrex moulds or other oven-proof individual serving dishes.

10Place in the oven for 20 minutes at 180°C without opening the oven door and then 5 minutes at 160°C. If you’re using a single serving container, add 10 minutes to the indicated cooking times.

11Turn off the oven and wait to remove the soufflé until the exact moment you’ll bring it to the table.

12Serve with a Parmigiano cheese sauce, perfect with a few shreds of white Alba truffle.

CHEF’S TIPS

*At this point, you’ll have a compact mixture.

**“Incorporate” means adding an ingredient to a more solid mixture, delicately moving a wooden spoon upwards and downwards. If the egg whites fall, the soufflé won’t rise. This is why the best container is a stainless steel bowl with a semi-spherical bottom. If you don’t have one, a simple terrine will do.

Recipe courtesy of Fine Dining Lovers

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