Souffle

Soufflé (French soufflé — “puffed up”) is a refined light dish of French cuisine with a characteristic airy, foamy texture that rises strikingly during baking. The basis of its lightness is egg whites whipped into a fluffy foam and folded into an aromatic base.

The mechanism of the soufflé's “magic” is this: a soufflé consists of two parts — a flavour base (a thick cream, purée, melted chocolate, cheese) and whipped whites that saturate the mass with air. In the hot oven the air bubbles expand and the white around them sets — and the soufflé rapidly rises above the dish in a fluffy “cap”. Soufflé may be sweet or savoury. A sweet soufflé is a tender, warm dessert (chocolate, vanilla, berry, lemon) served straight from the oven, often dusted with icing sugar, before it collapses. A savoury soufflé (cheese, vegetable, fish) is served as a refined hot appetiser or main dish. The main difficulty and drama of the soufflé is that it is exceptionally capricious and short-lived: having risen in the oven, out of it it quickly collapses, so it must be served immediately. This fragility is what makes the soufflé a symbol of culinary mastery — a light, airy, ephemeral embodiment of the elegance of French cuisine.