Apricot honey soufflé

Going through my pile of Bon Appétit magazines – I haven’t received the new issue because of the strike on our Mail Service – I found an article on soufflés by Molly, a.k.a. Orangette. After the “How come I did not read this when the magazine arrived?” moment, I felt inspired - I was going to make a soufflé, too. It was sort of like when I wanted to learn how to roller skate because of Olivia Newton-John. Being 9 and scared of getting my skinny legs and arms bruised I quickly dropped the idea. But a soufflé? That I can make. And I went for a sweet one.

The only problem here was NOT eating all the apricot purée before making the dessert. :)

Apricot honey soufflé
from Sweet Food

1 cup dried apricots, chopped
2 tablespoons superfine sugar
2 egg yolks
1 ½ tablespoons honey, warmed
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
4 egg whites
confectioners’ sugar, to dust

Place the apricots in a saucepan with ½ cup cold water, or enough to cover. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes or until the apricots are soft and pulpy. Drain (mine did not have any water left) and process in a food processor to a purée.

Preheat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF. Lightly grease a 6 cup soufflé dish* (using vertical strokes) and sprinkle the bottom and sides with 1 tablespoon of the sugar.
Put the egg yolks, honey, lemon zest and apricot purée and beat until smooth.

Whisk the egg whites in a clean, dry bowl until soft peaks form, then beat in the remaining sugar. Fold 1 tablespoon egg whites into the apricot mixture and mix well. Lightly fold in the remaining egg white, being careful to keep the mixture light and aerated. Spoon into the soufflé dish and level the surface. Run your thumb around the inside rim to create a gap between the mixture and the wall of the dish (this will encourage even rising).

Bake on the upper shelf in the oven for 25-30 minutes or until risen and just set. Cover loosely with foil if the surface starts to overbrown (I’m not sure how this would work with a soufflé the way it does with a cake, but the info comes from the book).
Dust with confectioners’ sugar and serve at once.

* I halved the recipe, used two 1-cup capacity soufflé dishes and baked them for 15 minutes.

Serves 4