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“There is no sincerer love than the love of food.” — George Bernard Shaw

I say, There is no sincerer pleasure than the pleasure of food! [Maybe we should rename this blog Food Hedonists? Very sexy.]

‘Hello, beautiful!’ It sounds absolutely skewed, but this is what I sighed out loud when we opened the oven to see this lovely creature…’r It was intimidating to make especially after hearing people say that it’s hard to do. But we are crazy amateur cooks who love a good challenge.

It was a little over midnight, Sunday, when we decided to make soufflé. [Yeah, we've already established that we're insane.] It was a bit late to make a grocery run for the usual chopped bittersweet chocolate and for cream, so I specifically looked for a cocoa powder-based recipe and substituted half and half for cream. [Horror, I know!]

And now, for the recipe:

Chocolate Soufflé (makes 2 individual soufflés — I love servings for two!)
[Based on this healthy recipe by Debra Lynn Dadd]

2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tablespoons xylitol sugar
1 tablespoon hot water
pinch of salt
1/4 cup cream half and half
2 whole eggs plus one egg white
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon sifted cocoa powder

1. Separate the eggs, placing the whites in a large mixing bowl and the yolks in a smaller bowl.

2. In a saucepan, over low heat, melt the butter, then whisk in the cocoa powder, sugar, hot water, and salt, and mix until blended. Whisk in the half and half. Beat the egg yolks, then whisk them into the chocolate. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

3. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

4. Butter two one-cup ramekins and dust the insides with cocoa.

5. Beat the egg whites to soft peaks.

6. Add about a third of the egg whites to the chocolate mixture and fold to blend. Add the remaining egg whites and fold very gently, only until just blended.

7. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the top is puffy and golden brown.

8. Dust with powdered evaporated cane juice if desired.

TIP:
For dusting the ramekins with cocoa powder, here’s a nifty trick: use a tea infuser with handle (like this). You can use it to spoon out cocoa and sprinkle it over the ramekin.

NOTES:

1. Of course using cream would make it much better. What we had in the end was still delish.

2. I made the mistake of beating the egg whites before Dan started mixing stuff in the sauce pan (step 2). He forgot about the cream at first. Oops. By the time we folded the egg whites, it was starting to break down. This might explain the light spots on the surface of the soufflé which are the, uhm, egg whites that won’t thoroughly mix because the were starting to get stiff.

A researcher at heart, I end up scouring the Internet for information about the food we cook and read that a good soufflé will only ‘fall’ after 5-10 hours. I’m finding that what I’ve fallen in love with is a ‘failure’ in the culinary world — ours collapsed after a few minutes. Gah!

Anyway, failure or not, I’m proud of our first chocolate soufflé. It was heavenly to eat and I polished my ramekin clean in a few minutes. Next time, we’re pouring créme anglaise over it…I can’t wait!