Raspberry souffle with poached strawberries and mint pesto

This is a fantastic dessert that is really big on the show-off factor. If you have a special dinner party planned, these delights are just perfect. They are also quite light, so they are just suited to a menu that may have been a little rich in the preceding courses.

Dessert soufflés are a little different to savoury ones. Both rely on the amazing power of egg whites to achieve their towering volume, but most savoury soufflés have a roux, or flour and butter as their base. This simple marvel of patissiere work uses only egg whites, sugar and a delicious home made fruit puree of your choice, making them even simpler. I have suggested raspberries here, 'cause I love them, but feel free to try other fruits. All berries will work well, as will poached pears and even bananas that have been crushed with a little caster sugar.

As long as you keep the fruit volume to around half a cup, the possibilities are limitless.

Ingredients

1/4 cup caster sugar

1 punnet raspberries (or 250 gm (1/2 lb) frozen raspberries)

4 egg whites

1/4 cup caster sugar, extra

Juice of half a lemon

Caster Sugar, to coat the ramekins

Icing sugar (powdered confectioners sugar) for dusting

18 poached strawberries

1/2 cup mint pesto

Method

Pre heat your oven to 200 °C (390 °F)

Wash the raspberries if using fresh and place in a small saucepan with 1/4 cup of caster sugar. Place on a gentle heat and cook for 10 minutes, or until they collapse a little. Remove from the heat and add the lemon juice. Set aside to let the mixture cool down.

Get ready 6 porcelain ramekin or soufflé dishes, of around 150 ml capacity. Using non-stick cooking spray, or unsalted butter, grease the insides of the ramekins well. Pour in a little extra caster sugar, around a tablespoon or so, and swirl the ramekin so the sugar coats the edges thoroughly. This will add a little "grip" to the sides of the dish that the soufflé will use to climb to incredible heights.

Place the egg whites in an electric Mixmaster with a balloon whisk attachment, or alternatively use hand held electric beaters. Beat the egg whites until you have reached the soft peak stage. That is, the egg white foam will hold a peak when lifted up, but it is not rigid. It should fall back on itself a little. With the beaters still running, add the second 1/4 cup of caster sugar in a gentle stream. Don't add the sugar all at once. You will notice that the egg whites will start to become more opaque and a little glossy. Once all the sugar has been added, continue beating the whites for another 3 - 4 minutes.

Pour the egg whites into a large bowl, then using a spatula, gently fold through the now cooled raspberry mixture. Don't over beat the mixture, work very lightly. Firstly you don't want to expel any air that you have incorporated into the egg whites, and secondly it is nice to have an attractive rippled pattern to the finished product.

Gently distribute the soufflé mixture between the 6 prepared ramekins and place on a flat baking tray. With the aid of a sieve, dust the top of the soufflés with icing sugar. This will ad a nice colour and gloss to the finished product. Slide the soufflés into the oven and cook for 18 minutes. Check to see that they are puffed up and a little brown on top. Some ovens are cooler than others, so they may need a few minutes more.

As soon as they are done, remove to waiting plates. Use a damp napkin as a base; this will stop the ramekins from sliding around. Place 3 poached strawberries and a little syrup next to each soufflé, plus a dollop of mint pesto. Serve them up to "ooohs and aaahs" from your guests.

OK, this is a perfect example of not all ovens being equal. BlackPawn made these recently and found that 18 minutes was way too much for his oven. He experimented, dropping the time down to first 10, then settling on 8 minutes as the perfect cooking time. Come to think of it, the last time I made these was in an ancient 1950´s commercial oven that was most like well out of whack. The lesson here is to not treat mine or anyone else's timing stipulation as gospel, but let your eyes be the final arbiter. Check these darlin´s after 8 minutes and see how they are faring in your oven.

Notes from Nemosyn's Cookbook

This is one of my favourite desserts. I have been cooking and serving these souffles for - well, since Sneff first noded them. I rarely consult the node, as I have the recipe copied out in my little blue book. Over the years I have accumulated a few notes and refinements that I would like to share with you.

First, BlackPawn was right. 18 minutes is way too long. I cook these for 10 minutes and I drop my oven to about 190^oC. On a newer and better sealed oven, 8 or 9 minutes would be sufficient. Because the souffle is mostly eggwhite, there's nothing wrong with undercooking them very slightly, either.

Second, you can use pretty much any combination of fruit. I quite like stone fruit - apricots, peaches, nectarines, plums - however that will make a really rich dessert. The beauty of the raspberries is that they are so light, so your dinner guests will usually be able to finish a whole serving. If you use larger fruit, be sure to chop it fairly small when cooking it; or run it very briefly through a blender. Any large chunks of fruit will be too heavy for the egg white and sink to the bottom of the dish. This applies equally to large pieces of peach and to heavy seeds like you get in passionfruit or pomegranate.

Do not skimp on the preparation of your ramekins. It doesn't matter too much what ramekin or dish you use to cook the souffle in, as long as you grease it and coat it with sugar fairly thoroughly. 

Despite the amount of sugar in this dessert it's incredibly light and works best in the middle of summer, following a light meal. It's very easy to make, and to double the quantities for a larger party. A single quantity as described above can be stretched to 8 souffles if you use small ramekins.

Unfortunately this is not a 'prepare ahead' dish. You can cook the fruit in advance and leave it to cool (or pop it in the fridge). The poached strawberries and mint pesto can be made the day before. Before your dinner party, or while doing last minute pre-dinner prep, you can separate the eggs. However, you will need to allow 10 minutes eggwhite beating + 10 minutes cooking + 5 minutes serving between main course and dessert.

Finally, this dish is gluten free, dairy free, and suitable for a low FODMAP diet. It is absolutely not suitable for diabetics, and don't bother trying it with stevia-based sugar substitutes (it doesn't dissolve properly in the eggwhites).

If you have any further notes to add about this recipe, please feel free to /msg me.