No. 3119

Souffle of Chocolate

Souffle au Chocolat

Melt in a saucepan at the oven door, in a little tepid water, four ounces of grated chocolate; remove and pour it into a bowl to smooth nicely; mix into it five or six spoonfuls of vanilla sugar (No. 3165), beating it in vigorously, then add four or five spoonfuls of the following preparation: Place in a tureen two tablespoonfuls of flour, a pinch of arrowroot, two tablespoonfuls of sugar and a little salt; dilute with half a gill of milk; strain into a saucepan and add two tablespoonfuls of melted butter and a little vanilla; stir on the fire until it boils and when smooth reduce till it is consistent and detaches from the pan; take out the vanilla and let partly cool. Add eight raw egg-yolks, two ounces of melted butter, four beaten whites and three spoonfuls of whipped cream. When all these ingredients are well incorporated pour the preparation into one or two souffle pans (Fig. 182) without filling them too high. Set the pan on a small baking sheet and bake the souffles in a slack oven from twenty to twenty-five minutes.

← No. 3118 Souffle of Chestnuts with Vanilla Hot Entremets — Puddings, Fritters & Soufflés No. 3120 Souffles in Cases with Vanilla or Orange—Sma →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer's chocolate soufflé is built on a thick flour panade rather than a true pastry cream, and it is far richer in yolks and butter than a modern soufflé. Read the whole thing before starting: the base has to be made, cooled and enriched before the whites go in.

The hinge: fold, then bake at onceThe batter cannot stand. Have the buttered and sugared moulds and a preheated oven ready before the whites are whipped, and get it into the heat the moment the cream is folded through.
"A slack oven"Roughly 275-300F. That is deliberate for a souffle this heavy with yolk and butter; a hotter oven sets and cracks the crust before the middle cooks. Ranhofer gives 20-25 minutes whether you use one pan or two; a larger mould may need a little longer, and should still wobble slightly at the centre.
Half a gill of milkA gill is half a cup, so this is 1/4 cup, thickened by 2 tablespoons of flour. It is meant to be a stiff paste that pulls away from the pan, and only four or five spoonfuls of it are used in the soufflé.
Grated chocolateProbably unsweetened or only lightly sweetened block chocolate, grated so it melts quickly; the amount of sugar added separately suggests as much. If you use a modern 70% bar, consider reducing the vanilla sugar by a spoonful or two.
Vanilla sugarNo. 3165 appears to be sugar flavoured with vanilla bean. Granulated sugar plus a scraped bean or a teaspoon of extract covers it; the "spoonfuls" here probably read as tablespoons.
"Melt at the oven door"A coal-range instruction for very gentle warmth. A bowl over barely simmering water, or short bursts in a microwave, is the equivalent; keep the heat low, as chocolate scorches easily.
The egg ratioEight yolks to four whites gives a dense, almost pudding-like soufflé rather than a tall airy one. If you want more lift, use six or seven whites and expect a lighter, less custardy result.
Yield and serviceRanhofer divides it between one or two souffle pans, without filling them too high. Serve straight from the oven; it will begin to sink within a few minutes and there is no rescuing it.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of the kitchen he ran at Delmonico's in New York, and its soufflé chapter is one of the clearest surviving pictures of high French dessert work as practised in an American restaurant. The name comes from souffler, to blow or puff, and the technique in this form is generally traced to early nineteenth-century French pastry kitchens, where a cooked flour-and-milk base gave the whipped whites something stable to lift. Chocolate as a dessert flavouring rather than a drink became practical for cooks of Ranhofer's generation once solid eating chocolate was widely manufactured in the mid-1800s; the instruction to grate it and soften it in tepid water at the oven door belongs to the era before reliable low heat, when the coolest spot in the kitchen was a matter of knowing your own range.