This Fearless Soufflé aux Framboises

FRESH RASPBERRY SOUFFLÉ

Raspberry soufflé is one of those dishes that strike fear into the heart of cooks all over the world. Any soufflé will do that. They lurk in the bracken of culinary lore, camouflaged in the pages of old cookbooks, ready to pounce. All you want to do is make a nice, elegant dessert and then when you least expect it—SOUFFLÉ!

But look, don’t fear the fruit soufflé. Don’t fear any soufflé. They can smell fear. Instead, cinch up your apron and plunge fearlessly into the world of puffy desserts made with egg whites and berries—or cheese, or anything else you want. Soufflés don’t care. Vincent Price don’t care.

Raspberry Soufflé beautiful and perfect

Some desserts are technical nightmares so when you try to replicate them without a team of 40 sous chefs wielding tweezers and blow torches, you end up with a monstrous unholy aberration. But a raspberry soufflé will not let you down. Like an omelet or [ANOTHER EXAMPLE] a soufflé is a simple dish wherein success is all about your technique. And in this instance, that technique is going to be twofold: egg whitism and patience.

Egg whites will eat your face

First of all, beat your egg whites last. Because this is the main boss of the soufflé level, a lot of cooks just jump right into it. Then they have a bowl of stiff peaks waiting to get married to the flavor base and it doesn’t happen soon enough and then they’re let down. So they deflate out of pure ennui. So make everything else (except the sauce) and have it ready to fold into the egg whites right after you beat the hell out of them.

Cream of tar tar is your friend

Because it stabilizes the proteins in the egg whites which allows them to stay stiff longer and no, I can’t think of anywhere else in one’s life that might help. It’s a byproduct of wine fermentation, potassium bitartrate, or potassium hydrogen tartrate, or tartaric acid. How cream got in there is beyond me but I blame an ironic Frenchman. if you don’t have any creme de tartar, you can achieve the same effect by squeezing some lemon juice into the egg whites. Just don’t over do it and be sure the hint of lemon flavor works in your recipe.

Some tips on soufflé framboise success

• Use metal bowls—they keep the temperature down, which helps everything
• Use a ramekin—they were designed for this
• Cook it on the lowest rack—you want the heat to rise up through your soufflé
• Use a mixer–soufflé need a LOT of air and you’re going to get tired using a whisk.
• Be patient—do not open the damned oven door. The sudden change in temperature will cause your oven to explode and kill your entire neighborhood (not verified by science) also your soufflé will shrink in terror