Friday mornings aboard the Finesse are cooking demonstrations in the beautiful open galley.

We try to find something that could be recreated at home, the twice baked cheese souffle was very popular choice all season & I have had many requests to put the recipe here on the blog.

This recipe can be made in advance & kept refrigerated for upto 3 days, then reheated when required, which makes this a great choice for something like a dinner party whee you want to spend as much time with guests as possible.

Recipe

65g Butter

65g Flour

370ml   milk

5 Egg yolks

1 tsp Dijon mustard

212g       Cheese grated

Seasoning

9             Egg whites

Directions

Preheat the oven to 180 c, 360 f, prepare 8 individual ramekins, grease them with butter or the spray grease I use in the cooking demonstration.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan, then add in the flour & cook over a medium heat for a couple of minutes, then off the heat add 1 third of the milk, beat until absorbed then add half the remaining milk return to the heat & continue mixing when absorbed add the remains milk, mix till fully absorbed & smooth, be careful it doesn’t catch on the base of the pan.Take the pan off the heat add the egg yolks & mustard add beat in until blended & smooth, add the cheese, return the pan to a medium heat and mix the cheese until melted into the roux, it does not have to be fully incorporated a few little lumps of cheese will give nice little cheesy hits in the final souffle. Pour the finish base into a large mixing bowl to cool & season to taste at this point.

Put the egg whites into a mixing bowl & whisk to medium stiff peaks, but not to stiff or they become brittle & will break down when you try to fold them in to the base. Fold 1 third  of the whites into the cheese mix, at this point you can be a little rough folding them in because this part will loosen the mix to make it easier to fold in the rest of the whites, when incorporated fold in the remaining whites in 2 parts being more careful, it does not matter if there are a few flecks of whites showing, do not over mix.

Fill the prepared ramekins almost to the top with the mix, place them in a roasting tin & fill the tin with water half way up the ramekins to create a Bain Marie, place this in the oven & bake for 25 to 30 minutes until golden on top add risen, remove from the oven and remove the ramekins from the Bain Marie.

When cool enough to handle the ramekins turn out the soufflés and place in the refrigerator until needed. When you want to use them remove them from the refrigerator half  an hour before, preheat the oven to 180 c 350 f, bake them for 8 mins they will rerise & crisp on the outside.

They are nice served with some onion marmalade, a light cheese sauce with some capers or a green salad if you want to be a bit healthier.

The cheese you use in the souffle base will have a big bearing on the outcome, in the cooking demonstration I recommend that you use a mature cheddar, I use Comte as its French and probably the nearest thing they have to a medium cheddar, however at the beginning I recommend you don’t use this at home the first time you make them as like Gruyere cheese it can be very stringy & elastic which firstly makes it difficult to fold in the egg whites & also the elasticity means the soufflés don’t rise as much as they will with a cheddar. I also explain that you can use blue cheese with this recipe but you can use blue cheese with this recipe, but be careful when seasoning because blue cheese can be very salty & use one less egg white because the mix will be loser just add the whites in two parts not loosening the mix as in the recipe.

have fun with the recipe, try different cheeses, mustards and at the point you add the cheese you can also add chopped herbs of your choice to compliment the cheese of your choice, later I will post an onion marmalade recipe to go with the souffle.