I sometimes try to rationalize this away by pretending it’s a cake for someone else. This works from time to time, but sometimes that someone lives 1,000 miles away from me… and it’s clear that the cake... the entire cake... is mine. ALL mine.
And then there’s just me. Just me and the 4 layer chocolate cake with caramel frosting inside. And a fork.
The burden of eating an entire cake is a heavy one. And one that I am never capable of carrying… no matter how desperately I try. But have no fear! I have recently discovered a solution—individual make ahead chocolate soufflé!
The major beauty of the make-ahead individual chocolate soufflé is that it can, as you may have guessed, be made ahead! Then you can store your soufflé in the freezer and have the satisfaction of knowing that there is always dessert, without the burden of having to consume an entire cake. When you have your dessert panic, you just take one soufflé out of the freezer, stick it in the oven, and 15 minutes later, voila! An amazingly fabulous dessert!
A side effect of this delightful treat is that if you are a person who frequently finds yourself entertaining at the last minute, you can pull these soufflés out of the freezer and really wow your guests… they will think you are Betty Crocker reborn!
Make Ahead Chocolate Souffle
Ingredients
5 T butter (1 T melted, the rest cut into chunks)
1/3 c sugar + some extra for coating the dishes
1 1/3 c semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/8 t salt
½ t vanilla
1 T Grand Marnier
6 large egg yolks
8 large egg whites
¼ t cream of tartar
2 T confectioner’s sugar
Melt 1 T butter and using a pastry brush, coat the inside of 12-16 ramekins (depending on the size. I needed about 16 4-oz mason jars). Then coat the buttered ramekins with a little bit of sugar.
In a double-boiler melt the chocolate and the rest of the butter over simmering water. Turn off the heat and add in the salt, vanilla and Grand Marnier.
Whisk together the sugar and 2 T of water and bring to a boil, turn down the heat a little and simmer until the sugar dissolves.
In the bowl of a mixer, pour in your egg yolks. Turn the mixer on medium-low and slowly add the sugar water mixture. Turn the speed up a little bit and beat until the mixture triples in volume. This takes about 2-3 minutes.
Fold the egg mixture into the chocolate mixture (or vice versa). Just get it all in a big bowl that’s not the mixing bowl.
Clean all the egg yolk mixture off the beaters and the bowl. You don’t want any yolk to come in contact with your egg whites in your next step, otherwise your whites won’t do whip up nicely, and the entire souffle depends on the nice fluffy egg whites.
Beat your egg whites until frothy then add the cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks form.
Add the powdered sugar and beat until stiff peaks form. You really want to be sure these are nice and stiff because otherwise it won’t hold it’s shape / rise well when you bake it.
Take about ¼ of your egg white mixture and add it into the chocolate mixture. Stir it in really well to loosen it up.
Then gently fold in the rest of the egg whites until it’s just incorporated. Don’t stir too much or all your careful hard work will fall flat. Literally.
Fill each ramekin almost to the rim, cover and freeze at least 3 hours or up to 2 days (though to be honest they stay in my freezer much longer… they just don’t rise quite as well or look quite as pretty after that. They are still delicious, and that’s all I care about).
When it comes time to cook the soufflé, preheat your oven to 400 degrees and bake until it has risen, about 15 – 18 minutes. If you want to check to see if it’s done, use 2 spoons to pull apart the top and peek inside. If it’s still liquidy put it back for a bit.
Serve immediately before it all comes crashing down! Enjoy!
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