Super Easy Cheese Souffle

Super Easy Cheese Souffle

*Preheat oven to 350° F

*Butter and flour two small ramekins and set aside

Pretty much any and all souffles are egg based. Eggs hold their structure when whipped and then cooked, which is what gives souffles their lovely light and airy texture.

I find it easier to beat the eggs beforehand because making the roux requires constant attention and you're really not going to be able to find a big enough chunk of time to beat your eggs between melting your butter, adding your flour spoonful by spoonful and keeping your roux moving so that it doesn't burn.

1. So separate an egg and a yolk into two separate bowls. Beat the yolk with a good pinch of salt and pepper just to get that step out of the way. You'll know you're done when the yolk lightens at least one shade.

2. Beat your whites until you have stiff peaks. Now if you're beating your eggs by hand, this is going to take TIME. Trust me it feels like for-ev-er; lord knows I thought my arm was about ready to fall off, but I promise you, the cramps will be well worth it when you see those beautiful white peaks stand up on their own.


The next step to any savory souffle is making a roux, super easy:

1. Melt a couple pads of butter in a saucepan over low heat. You can start with the pan relatively hot just to melt the butter, but make sure it's had time to cool down before you start the next step.

2. Once butter has melted, slowly add (a spoonful at a time) five heaping spoonfuls of flour, or until the mixture has thickened. If your butter and flour mixture starts to look too thick, just add some oil and/or turn down the heat.

3. It's going to be tempting to turn the heat up at this point, but resist! If you turned up the heat at this point, you'd probably wind up making a pancake and while pancakes are delicious, we're trying to make a roux. So, keep the heat low and slowly add your milk until your mixture starts to look like white gravy.

4. Then again very slowly, add your cheese until it looks like you're ready to put it over pasta and call the family in for some cheesy mac. Turn off the heat.

The next step is tempering. All tempering means is slowly bringing beaten eggs up to a higher temperature without cooking them.

1. Add four big spoonfuls of your roux to your beaten yolk, spoonful by spoonful, folding in the mixture after each addition.

2. Then add all of the egg and roux mixture you just tempered back into the saucepan of remaining roux.

3. Add what you have in the saucepan to your egg whites spoonful by spoonful until you get through about half of your saucepan mixture. FOLD. DO NOT WHIP/MIX/BEAT. After you get through half of it, you can just add the rest to the egg whites.

*Pour your souffle mixture into your ramekins, top with some cheese and pop them in the oven for about 20 minutes or until golden brown on top.


Possible Variations/Substitutions:

• You can add just about everything but the kitchen sink to this recipe: ham, turkey, mushrooms, spinach, bacon, caramelized onions, squash, and the list goes on and on.