Honestly, until enlightened by Giada De Laurentiis, I was soufflé-phobic. No doubt you’ve seen references similar to those that kept me anxious about attempting to make a soufflé. You know the ones… the cook peering into the oven and hissing quietly to anyone who approaches, “shhhhhhhhh, it’ll fall”.

Now, I don’t shy away from challenges and experimentation in the kitchen but with soufflés I really thought why bother if a disaster is imminent.  And then one day during a routine search for a decadent chocolate dessert there it was – Gianduja Soufflé.

Say what? Gianduja? Yeah, I didn’t know how to pronounce it either so I looked it up – zhahn-DOO-yah and now say that with a Swiss accent! Hailing from Switzerland, gianduja is hazelnut-flavored chocolate. Think Swiss Nutella and who does chocolate better than the Swiss <insert the lip licking smiley face here>.

Bottom line – gianduja soufflé and Giada cured my phobia!  I think my “light bulb” moment was when I read the recipe note  that indicated you can make these soufflés up to two days in advance.  How could they possibly be so delicate?   So with Giada’s recipe  and this post I hope you too are inspired to give making soufflés a try.  They really are a treat and kind of impressive to serve!

(I’m trying something new here in this post… more photos.  Taking photos while cooking is not second nature to me and I missed a few key photo opportunities.  Rest assured no soufflé was harmed by my misses!)

Start with great chocolate… do not skimp here.  There would be no point!  Chop that chocolate and divide it.

Next assemble your double boiler… I use a stainless steel bowl over a 3 quart pot.  Make the gianduja  – add the butter, sugar, Frangelica and vanilla and heat until the butter is melted.  Add the smaller portion of chocolate to the butter mixture and stir off heat until melted.

Move the gianduja to a pie plate and put it in the freezer until firm and scoop-able.  Form into balls and place one ball in the bottom of each prepared ramekin.

Rinse the bowl from the double boiler in preparation for the next step which is to make the soufflé batter.  Start with the flour and the milk and whisk to the consistency of mayo.

Whisk in the egg yolks.

Add the larger portion of chocolate to the flour mixture.

I forgot to take a photo of the egg whites whipped to stiff peak!   Oh well… even though there isn’t a photo fold the egg whites into the soufflé batter and spoon into the ramekins over the gianduja balls.

Bake for 30 minutes in a water bath and viola — soufflé!

Dig into these ramekins of chocolate bliss while they are still steaming hot right out of the oven!   Heavenly.

Shhhhh it’ll fall… NOT!  Thanks for visiting Palatable Life.

Be inspired,
Diane

P.S.  A while back I’d written notes on my copy of this recipe to try them with dark chocolate, cayenne pepper and cinnamon.  So I did.  The flavor was great (I mean YUM-ME great) but there were some issues.  The chocolate broke and they didn’t rise properly because I deflated the egg white folding them into the broken chocolate.   Since I no longer have a fear of the soufflé, my experimentation will continue.   Through my crystal ball, I see a  dark chocolate and orange soufflé in my future.