Home › The Waldorf Kitchen › Pistachio Souffles
Pistachio Souffles
Four ounces of blanched pistachios should be cut, half of them into strips and the remainder chopped fine. Whip up the whites of three eggs to a stiff froth and mix it with the strips of pistachios and half a pound of sugar; place this mixture in small paper cases about three-quarters of an inch in width and height, dusting over with a little sugar, and moisten it a little, sprinkle over the chopped pistachios, baking in a slack oven until a brown color is attained; then turn it out onto a dish, and serve.
Despite the name, these are not soufflés in the risen-custard sense but small baked meringues, closer to an Italian amaretto or a French rocher. The whole thing turns on the oven being barely warm.
- "Slack oven"The coolest working oven of a coal range, roughly 250-275F. At that heat the meringue dries through rather than colouring quickly; a modern 350F oven will scorch the sugar and the nuts before the centres set. The instruction to bake "until a brown color is attained" means a pale biscuit tan, not deep brown.
- ProportionsThree egg whites (about 3 oz) to half a pound of sugar is a very stiff, heavily sweetened meringue — a higher proportion of sugar than a standard hard meringue. It will be more paste than foam once the sugar and nuts go in, which is what allows it to hold its shape in the cases.
- Fold the sugar in graduallyWhipping the whites stiff first and then dumping in 8 oz of sugar will collapse them. Beat to soft peak, add the sugar in a slow stream to stiff glossy peaks, then fold in the pistachio strips by hand.
- "Moisten it a little"Genuinely ambiguous in the original. The likeliest reading is a light brush or spray of water on the surface before the chopped nuts go on, so they adhere and the tops glaze; it is not an instruction to add liquid to the batter.
- Paper casesThree-quarters of an inch wide and high means very small — roughly petit-four size, not cupcake size. Mini paper cases or a piped mound on parchment both work; the cases were partly there to stop the sticky mixture spreading.
- Blanching pistachiosPour boiling water over shelled nuts, stand a minute, drain and rub off the skins. This helps keep the colour green rather than dull brown, which is likely part of why the recipe specifies blanched.
- Yield and keepingExpect somewhere in the range of 40 or more small pieces at the size given. Cooled completely and kept in an airtight tin they will hold for several days; humidity will soften them quickly if left out.
Oscar Tschirky's 1896 collection reads more as a compilation of professional practice than a teaching book, which is why the instructions assume a pastry cook already knows the form. Small baked meringues of this kind — sugar, whites and a nut — were common petits fours secs in French-trained hotel kitchens of the period, and the loose use of "soufflé" for any light whipped-white confection was not unusual in nineteenth-century menu French. Pistachios were a costly import at the time and were prized for their green colour as well as their flavour, which may be why the recipe blanches them and uses them twice, cut into strips inside and chopped over the top.