The Science of the Souffle

Souffles look hard, and sound hard, but really aren't. It's pretty difficult to bollocks one up and the general populace will never believe that it took you exactly 11 minutes to whip something that impressive up. When you serve a simple souffle people think you're some sort of culinary genius, which is just fine with me. The simple fact is that a culinary doofus could make a souffle.

You can whip up a quick souffle even if your cupboard is almost totally bare. All you need is an egg or two, some sugar, fruit and a starch (in this case, cornstarch). If that wasn't reason enough to love the souffle, consider this: You can make them well in advance and just bung them back in the oven to re-puff them. You wanna know how? Well, here comes the sciency part...

The base for any souffle is a nice dense whipped egg white. This egg white base makes up the structure of the souffle. The whipped egg white is really just a huge collection of millions of eeny weeny teeny tiny bubbles suspended in a thin film of egg white. Like the bubbles in your bubble bath, only smaller and not so soapy.

Because these bubbles are really just pockets of air, when you bake your souffles the heat of the oven causes the air to expand and so each tiny bubble becomes just a little bit bigger. And because each bubble is now a little bit bigger they each take up a bit more space, and your souffle starts to rise up out of its container.

That's only the first part. Because if it wasn't for the coagulation of the egg white, the souffle structure would completely collapse when you took it out of the oven. Thankfully though, that same heat that expands all the little air bubbles, also coagulates the proteins in the egg white changing it from a raw liquid into a cooked solid. The same thing that happens when you fry an egg in a frying pan.

Any souffle will collapse slightly when it is removed from the oven and cools a bit. This is because, as the air inside the bubbles cools down, the bubbles shrink a little bit because the air takes up less space. The bubbles don't shrink all the way though, because the solidified egg white holds the whole thing up.

Not so scary any more, eh?

Now the really great part.

Because the egg white has solidified and the air bubbles shrink when cold and expand when heated, you can make the souffles ahead of time, chill them and then you can re-puff them almost all the way back up by heating them up again. How fantastic is that? If you were having a dinner party, you could make them the day before and then heat them back up in a warm oven while your guests are enjoying their main course. All those magic little bubbles would get to work for you, puffing things up, and your guests would be none the wiser.

I made this souffle on Sunday afternoon. Cakes and I ended up not having dinner that night because we ate them all. They are tangy and not too sweet with a very big grapefruit flavour and a gorgeous, soft, marshmallow middle. They feel so rich and sensual on your tongue that you'll have a hard time believing that they are practically fat free and pretty low-cal! You could easily substitiute any fruit juice in place of the grapefruit juice  - try lime, raspberry or passionfruit!

Easy as all get-out grapefruit souffles

(adapted from a recipe found in Australian Gourmet Traveller March 2006 page 36)

Serves 6

• 250ml (1 cup) fresh squeezed grapefruit juice (you could use lemon, lime, orange or a combination as well) (about 3 small grapefruits or 2 large) - reserve the spent skins - you'll need the skin of six grapefruit halves.
• rind of 1/2 grapefruit, finely minced (about 1.5 tablespoons)
• 100 grams sugar (divided in half)
• 15 grams corn starch (about 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon)
• 2 tablespoons water
• 2 egg whites

Use a grapefruit spoon to clean any remaining pulp and membrane from the inside of 6 grapefruit halves. Dust the inside of the pith with sugar. Set aside.

Combine juice, 50g sugar and rind in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Simmer until juice is reduced to 150ml. Strain out rind pieces.

Mix starch and water together. Whisk starch mixture into hot juice and continue to whisk over low heat until juice is substantially thickened. Remove from heat and immerse pan into a cool water bath. Whisk until the juice mixture is cold, about 3 minutes. Set aside.

Whip egg whites until soft peaks form. Add 50 gm sugar and continue whipping until firm peaks form. Fold egg whites into grapefruit mixture in two batches.

Spoon souffle mix evenly into grapefruit halves, filling until level with the top.

Place halves on a baking tray and bake in a 360F oven for 15 minutes, or until puffed and the tops are brown.

Serve with a dusting of icing sugar. If you're making these ahead, cool to room temperature and then refrigerate inside a plastic container large enough to accommodate the souffles without touching the tops. Reheat them in a 360F oven for 8-12 minutes, until they have re-puffed, before serving.

Each of these souffles is: 100 cal, 0.2 grams fat and 2 WW points

Comments

[Rosa]

Beautiful! I love the idea of spooning the souffle mix into grapefruit halves...

[Ange]

Love the cute presentation!

[Molly]

What a great explanation of the science of souffles! I have never been afraid of them, myself, but they seem even more straightforward when you break them down this way. And served in a grapefruit half? Wonderful! Thank you.

[kevin ashton (chef & food writer uk)]

Hey Lex ...just wanted to say I'm impressed with the your food blog, its one of the best I've seen. I'm also impressed with any Canadian who uses the word bollocks.

There's a famous British Comedian who liked to tell his American friends that bollocks was the English slang for zits. Months later his American girlfriend went into a UK drug store and asked, "Can you give me something for my bollocks"
Regards
Kevin Ashton (chef & food writer uk)
www.wannabetvchef.blog.co.uk

[Bri Gallina]

Hello, this is my first time to the site, and it helped me alot with my science fair project. I really needed to find some science information about souffles, Thank You!

[Martin Lersch]

That's a very nice presentation! I've never seen that before.

[Janet Gutrich]

My 7th grade daughter wants to do a science fair project with souffles. Can you suggest
a worthwhile experiment involving souffles?