On the Finesse I do a cooking demonstration every week, which is how to make a twice baked cheese soufflé, but we don’t demonstrate a dessert soufflé, as promised to a number of guests here we will work through the chocolate soufflé served through 2018.

Here we have served the soufflé with a passion fruit sorbet to cut the richness of the chocolate.

This soufflé is very easy to make if you have a basic knowledge of desserts, it is also very stable, the base is a creme patisserie which is basically a very thick custard, unlike a custard you simmer the custard as you cook it to thicken it, but unlike a custard the eggs will not scramble because of the flour & cornflour. For our North American guests in this recipe I use cornflour, it is very important you do not confuse this with cornstarch which is used a lot in the USA but is not the same ingredient & does not react the same, cornstarch as its name suggests is made from corn, but cornflour is made from wheat therefore they don’t react exactly the same, in a savoury recipe this probably won’t make to much difference but working with pastry you have to be very precise.

Chocolate soufflé

6 egg yolks

150g caster sugar

40g plain flour

35g cornflour

50g cocoa powder

500ml whole milk

6 egg whites

120g caster sugar

With some room temperature butter, butter & sugar line 6 ramekins, place them in freezer until needed.

Preheat oven to 185 c / 365 f / gas 4

Place egg yolks an 150g sugar into a pan & make into a paste, then add flour & cornflour, mix to combine, add small amount of warmed milk place over a medium heat & add the milk slowly while mixing, when all the milk has been added cook over medium heat stirring all the time, when the mixture is hot add the cocoa powder & continue cooking the custard mix, watching it doesn’t catch on the bottom of the pan, until you have a smooth thick creme patisserie, transfer to a bowl & cover with cling film until needed.

In a separate bowl whisk egg whites with 120g sugar until stiff shiny meringue, fold meringue into the creme patisserie until no whites are visible in the chocolate mix.

Spoon mix into frozen ramekins, level off the tops, place into the oven, cook for around 12 mins