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Vanilla Souffle
Cut half vanilla bean into very small pieces and boil it in a saucepan with a pint milk for five minutes; remove the pan to the table, cover it and infuse for fifteen minutes. Place in another small saucepan three ounces sifted flour, three ounces granulated sugar; then strain the vanilla milk into this pan and briskly mix with a whisk for two minutes. Set the pan on the fire and continually stir with a spatula until it comes to a boil. Remove to a table, then add one by one three egg yolks, briskly stirring while adding. Beat up the white of the three eggs to a stiff froth, add to the batter and gently mix with a skimmer for one minute. Lightly butter a large souffle dish and drop in the preparation. Smooth the surface with the blade of a knife, sprinkle a tablespoon powdered sugar over, and set to bake in a moderate oven for twenty minutes. Remove and immediately send to the table.
N. B. Place the pieces of vanilla used in the milk in a glass jar and keep for further requirements.
A flour-thickened soufflé of the old restaurant type — closer to a baked pastry cream than the airy modern version. The proportions are unusual and worth reading twice before you start.
- Moderate ovenRoughly 350F. The recipe gives twenty minutes; avoid opening the door while it bakes.
- The weightsThree ounces of sifted flour is about 3/4 cup; three ounces of granulated sugar is a scant 1/2 cup. Weigh them if you can — the flour especially, since the base is stiff enough that an extra spoonful matters.
- A pint of milkTwo US cups. Use whole milk.
- Strain the hot milk in fastPouring near-boiling milk onto dry flour and sugar will lump unless the whisk is already moving. Add a little first, work it to a smooth paste, then the rest.
- Only three eggsThree yolks and three whites against a pint of milk and three ounces of flour is a very low egg ratio by current standards. Expect a dense, custardy soufflé that rises modestly and does not collapse dramatically — that is the intended result, not a failure.
- Cool the base before the yolks"Remove to a table" means off the heat, and the yolks go in one at a time so they temper rather than scramble. Give the pan a minute first.
- FoldingA skimmer is a flat perforated spoon; a rubber spatula does the same job. Stir a quarter of the whites in to slacken the heavy base, then fold the rest through in two additions.
- Dish size and yieldA "large souffle dish" here is probably in the 1.5 to 2 quart range, buttered and filled no more than three-quarters. Likely four to six servings, and the instruction to send it to the table immediately is the whole point — it begins settling soon after it leaves the oven.
- The vanilla beanThe note about saving the boiled pieces in a jar is sound. Rinsed and dried, spent pod goes into sugar or into the next pint of milk; a half bean is a lot of flavour to throw away.