Ben's Pumpkin Souffle Recipe

Pumpkin Souffle

- serves 6-7

Ingredients:
6 eggs, separated
2 oz plus 1 oz sugar
3 oz all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cream (whole milk or half-and-half is probably ok here)
3/4 cup pumpkin (I use canned)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
pinch of cream of tartar
melted butter and sugar to line ramekins
powdered sugar for decoration
6 or 7 ramekins

Pumpkin Base:
- warm cream and pumpkin in a saucepan
- in a medium bowl, whisk 2oz sugar into yolks. whisk in flour, then warmed liquid mixture
- return to saucepan. cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until thickened. do not boil
- remove from heat and stir in cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves
- cover with plastic wrap
- let cool to room temp or refrigerate for later and bring to room temp before using

Souffle:
-preheat oven to 425 degrees F
- coat inside of ramekins with melted butter, then sugar
- in a large bowl, whip egg whites to stiff peaks, adding 1 oz sugar and cream of tartar partway through
- gently fold whites into base
- spoon mixture into ramekins
- place on baking sheet in oven
- bake ~13 minutes, until edges appear dry; do not touch
- sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve immediately
- resist the urge to eat them all yourself. trust me.

Pumpkin Souffle

I've been trying to think of something fun to make for Thanksgiving. Something a little fancier than the usual pumpkin pie, but not too fancy. I do love pumpkin pie. I've also been wanting to try out a souffle for a while, so to knock two things off my list at once, I decided to come up with a pumpkin souffle recipe. That's right, I made up a recipe. Well, okay, I started with a chocolate souffle recipe from my culinary school textbook, but I totally reworked it, mostly. I did a trial run tonight because I didn't want Thanksgiving to come around and my recipe to turn out to be disgusting at the last minute, seeing how I basically made it up. Well, it turned out pretty freakin' good. Actually, I couldn't find anyone at the last minute to help me eat them, so... I kinda had five at once. What? Souffles don't keep. Ask anyone! I would have finished them off, too, but ugh... just too much. Take my advice, stop at three.

If there's any interest, I can post the recipe.

UPDATE: Recipe is now available.

Return of the Wedding Cake - Part 2

Spent Thursday night baking, slicing, filling, and frosting the anniversary cake. Did the final bit of decoration on Friday while the happy couple looked the other way. Turned out just as planned, this being about the fourth time I've made that particular cake. Unfortunately, my camera didn't make it all the way through the process, but I snapped a quick cameraphone shot of the final product.

Return of the Wedding Cake

Remember the wedding cake I did last November? Well, my sister and brother-in-law's first anniversary is coming up and I promised them I would recreate the top tier of their wedding cake. There's that whole tradition of saving the top of the wedding cake in your freezer to eat on your anniversary, but gross. Year-old cake? Not that I don't have older things in my freezer, but I probably won't end up actually eating any of them.

So, tonight I made a fresh batch of the raspberry-blackberry curd. Last night I did chocolate rose leaves. We'll see if the flowers from last Sunday's farmer's market can make it until the weekend. I'm being extra-careful with them. Thursday I'll bake the cakes, mix up the ganache frosting, and assemble.