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Mocha Souffle
3 tablespoons butter 3 tablespoons bread flour 3/4 cup boiled coffee (Mocha) 1/4 cup cream 1/2 cup sugar 1/4 teaspoon salt 4 eggs 1/2 teaspoon vanilla Make and bake same as Chocolate Souffle. Serve with Mocha Sauce. Mix yolks two eggs, one-fourth cup sugar, and a few grains salt; then add gradually one-half cup Mocha coffee infusion. Cook in double boiler until mixture thickens, stirring constantly. Strain, cool, and fold in one cup whipped cream.
A coffee soufflé built on the standard panada method of the period: a butter-and-flour paste let down with liquid, enriched with yolks, then lightened with beaten whites. The cross-referenced Chocolate Souffle instructions are not on this page, so the working method is reconstructed below.
- Method, since it is only cross-referencedMelt the butter, stir in the flour, and cook a minute without colouring; add the coffee and cream and stir until thick and smooth. Off the heat beat in sugar, salt, the four yolks and the vanilla, then fold in the four whites beaten firm but not dry.
- OvenThe recipe gives no temperature; a moderate oven, around 350F, for 30 to 35 minutes in a buttered dish is a reasonable modern reading. Some soufflés of this type are baked with the dish set in a pan of hot water, which gives a softer, more custardy centre; either way it wants to be served the moment it leaves the oven.
- Bread flourIn this period the term simply distinguishes ordinary wheat flour from pastry or cake flour. Plain all-purpose flour is the right substitute; modern high-protein bread flour will make the base gummier than intended.
- "Mocha" coffeeHere it refers to the coffee itself, originally a particular bean, not coffee plus chocolate. Use 3/4 cup of strong brewed coffee, erring on the strong side, since the sugar and eggs mute the flavour.
- CreamThe quarter cup in the soufflé should be heavy or whipping cream. The cup folded into the sauce must be cream whipped to soft peaks, folded in only after the custard is fully cold or it will slacken.
- The sauce custardCook the yolk-sugar-coffee mixture over water that is hot but not boiling, stirring without stopping, until it coats a spoon: about 170 to 175F. Pushed much past that it will curdle; straining, as the recipe directs, catches anything that does.
- YieldFour to six servings from a 1 1/2-quart dish, with sauce to spare. The soufflé begins to fall within a few minutes of coming out, so have the sauce made and chilled beforehand.