Soufflé

A soufflé is a light, fluffy, baked dish made with egg yolks and beaten egg whites combined with various other ingredients and served as a savory main dish or sweetened as a dessert. The word soufflé is the past participle of the French verb souffler which means "to blow up" or more loosely "puff up" — an apt description of what happens to this combination of custard and egg whites.

Every soufflé is made from 2 basic components: a base of flavored cream sauce or purée and beaten egg whites. The base provides the flavor and the whites provide the "lift". Foods commonly used for the base in a soufflé include cheese, chocolate, banana and lemon (the last three are used for desserts, often with a good deal of sugar). When it comes out of the oven, a soufflé should be puffed up and fluffy, and will generally fall after 5 or 10 minutes (as risen dough does).

Soufflés can be made in containers of all shapes and sizes but it is traditional to make soufflé in "soufflé cups" or ramekins. These containers vary greatly in size, but are typically glazed white, flat-bottomed, round porcelain containers with unglazed bottoms and fluted exterior borders.

Yesterday, I had the chocolate soufflé with hot, melting chocolate sauce in the middle of it. I had to wait 15 mins for them to prepare and bake it, but its worth the wait. Soufflé should be eaten quickly, while hot and before it falls. The rich and warm chocolate soufflé is further complemented with thyme ice-cream. Bon Appetite :)