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Custard Souffle
2 teaspoons butter 2 teaspoons flour 1/2 cup milk 1 egg yolk, beaten 1 tablespoon sugar 1 egg white, beaten stiff Melt the butter, add the flour and blend smoothly, without browning. Pour in the milk and cook 3 minutes after boiling point is reached. Pour hot mixture (let it cool a little) over the yolk, put in the sugar and fold in gently, the beaten white. Turn into two greased cups and bake in a moderate oven until firm--about 15 minutes. Serve at once, with or without sauce. Serves 2.
A very small hot souffle built on a thick white sauce base, sized for one or two invalid portions. Everything hinges on tempering the sauce into the yolk and on not deflating the white.
- Oven temperature"Moderate" was generally taken to mean somewhere around 350-375F; the recipe itself gives no figure. The custards are shallow and set quickly; higher heat browns the tops before the centres firm.
- Tempering the yolkThe instruction to let the sauce cool a little is the point of failure. Sauce straight off the heat will scramble the yolk into threads; let it drop to hand-warm, then pour it in slowly while whisking.
- FoldingFold the stiff white in with a spatula in a few broad strokes, stopping while streaks are still visible. Overworking it here is the difference between a souffle and a sweet omelette.
- The cupsTwo greased teacups or 4 oz ramekins, filled no more than three-quarters. If the cups are thick-walled china, allow a few extra minutes and set them on a baking sheet for easier handling.
- DonenessAbout 15 minutes in a moderate oven; the tops should be puffed and just set, with no liquid wobble at the centre. A cake tester in the middle should come out clean.
- Serve at onceThis is not padding in the original. A souffle this small begins to sink within a few minutes out of the oven, so have the plates and any sauce ready before it goes in.
- SauceThe unspecified sauce could have been a thin custard, a fruit puree, or warm jam thinned with a spoonful of water. Any of these still works.
- YieldTwo small portions as written. It doubles cleanly, but bake in individual cups rather than one dish; a single larger souffle needs longer and behaves differently.