Pastry Foundations · Dessert
Vanilla Souffle on a Patissiere Base
- Advanced
- 30 min
- roughly 2 of 4 for cost
- Vegetarian
Leads with richness that coats and comforts, a floral thread lifting the aroma.
Ingredients
- 20 g soft butter, for the moulds
- 30 g caster sugar, for the moulds
- 250 g creme patissiere, thick, at 20C (68F)
- 180 g egg white (about 6)
- 45 g caster sugar, for the whites
- 1 g cream of tartar
- Seeds of 1 vanilla pod
Equipment
Ramekins · Sheet pan
The skills inside
Whipping a meringueThe soufflé
The words inside
Allergen screen
Found: dairy · egg
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Butter six 200 ml ramekins in upward strokes only, chill them, butter again, then coat with caster sugar and knock out the excess.
- Loosen the pastry cream with the vanilla seeds until it drops from the spatula in a soft ribbon; a cold stiff base will not take the whites.
- Whip the whites and cream of tartar to medium peak, adding the 45 g sugar in three lots from the moment they turn opaque; the peak should nod over at its tip.
- Beat a third of the whites into the base to slacken it, then fold in the rest in two additions, stopping the instant the last white streak disappears.
- Fill to the rim, level with a palette knife and run a thumb round the inside edge so the batter is free of the lip.
- Bake on a preheated tray at 190C (375F) for 12 to 14 minutes, until risen 4 to 5 cm with a set collar and a centre that still trembles; serve within two minutes. 14 min
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the technique it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Whipping a meringue 40 recipes
- Bowl and whisk are clean and dry with no trace of fat or yolk. Grease prevents the foam outright, and there is no recovering a bowl that had it partway through.
- The sugar went in gradually once the whites were already foaming, rather than all at once at the start.
- No grit: a little rubbed between finger and thumb feels smooth, so the sugar has dissolved into the foam rather than sitting in it.
- Stiff peaks means the tip stands with a slight bow when the whisk lifts, and the bowl can be tipped without the mass moving in it.
- Glossy and smooth rather than chalky or dull, with no liquid gathering underneath it in the bowl.
Where it goes wrong It was whipped past stiff peaks. A minute beyond glory the protein network tightens and tears, the foam turns grainy and matte, water weeps out beneath it, and folding that into anything gives a mixture that collapses on the way to the oven.
At the Table
- The Pour
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- Jasmine tea
The sweetness rule is absolute: the pour must be sweeter than the plate, and acid keeps it from cloying.
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