I’ve seen twice-baked soufflés being baked a couple of times on my favourite UK variety show ‘Come Dine With Me’. What these home chefs do is whip up a light egg and milk batter for baking which would rise into a sponge cake of sorts (and then quickly collapse), turn the cake out onto a gratin dish, pour cream and cheese over the top and bake again once they are ready to serve. These soufflés always looked so amazing and mouth-watering. Just imagine: sizzling cheese right out of the oven, bubbling with molten cheese and milk lava.
Which was why I started off with a basic cheese soufflé recipe last week for my first attempt, before I move on to the twice-baked version this week. There are several versions of twice-baked soufflés too – with potato or goat’s cheese as the base of the cake batter, with gruyere cheese as the topping etc. I’ve decided to stick with a similar cake batter mixture as what I had last week and top it off with a sure-safe cheddar cheese and whipped cream mixture.
Ingredients:
- Unsalted butter (softened): 3 tbsp + 2 tbsp + 2 tbsp
- Powdered parmesan cheese: 6 tbsp
- English leek: 1 stalk, leaves removed, chopped finely (about 1 cup)
- Plain flour: 40g (1/3 cup)
- Plain milk: 1 cup
- Mature cheddar cheese (grated): 1 cup (about 100g) + 6 tbsp
- Egg: 3, yolks and whites separated
- Salt: 3/4 tsp
- Ground blackpepper: to taste
- Light or thickened unwhipped cream: 1 1/4 cups (12 tbsp)
Method:
- Coat the 6 ramekins twice using 3 tbsp softened butter, leaving them to chill in the fridge in between coats. Use an upward stroke to coat.
- Fill each ramekin with 1 tbsp parmesan cheese. Roll to coat, tapping out the excess. Leave in fridge to chill again.
- Preheat oven at 180 degrees Celsius.
- Melt 2 tbsp butter in saucepan. Add leek and stir-fry till soft. Pour into a bowl and set aside.
- Melt remaining 2 tbsp butter in saucepan. Add flour and stir for a min.
- Mix in 1/4 of milk till combined.
- Add in remaining milk and stir till thickened sauce forms.
- Remove from heat. Stir in leeks and 1 cup cheddar cheese till evenly mixed.
- Cool for 5min. Then stir in egg yolks, salt and pepper.
- In a separate bowl, beat egg whites till soft peaks form.
- Stir in 1 tbsp beaten whites into cheese mixture to loosen it.
- Then pour the cheese mixture into the egg whites and fold the whites into the mixture. Do not over-fold.
- Spoon mixture into ramekins, right to the brim. Level with back of spoon and run a finger around the rim of the ramekins (without rubbing away the butter) to separate the mixture from their edges.
- Place ramekins onto a baking tray. Top up the tray with boiling water till it reaches half the height of the ramekins.
- Place tray in oven. Bake 20min till soufflés are golden brown and risen. Remove to cool for 5min.
- Run a butter knife around the edges of the soufflés. Turn them out onto individual shallow baking or gratin dishes.
- Spoon 2 tbsp cream over each soufflé. Spoon 1 tbsp cheddar cheese on top of cream.
- Return to bake for 15min till sizzling and golden brown.
- Serve immediately.
Disclaimer:
- I find this recipe of twice-baked cheese soufflé a lot yummier than my previous recipe, ‘The Original French Cheese Soufflé‘, which is baked only once. It is a sure winner – what with all the fragrantly melted cheese the soufflé is covered in!
- This recipe was kindly adapted from Recipe Tin Eats’ Twice Baked Make Ahead Cheese Souffle. The instructions were easy to follow – a good starting point for those who have never made soufflés ever before.
Serving:
6 small ramekins
