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

Broccolini and cauliflower soufflé

We are still on a light vibe at home – for this “King of the Fortnight” (an event for blogs written in Portuguese) I needed to prepare a dish with cauliflower. I searched for light and healthy recipes and ended up with 2 that sounded good – this soufflé is one of them.



I love soufflés and even though this is a lighter version I wasn’t disappointed with the result – the only problem was to photograph it while still puffed. :)

Broccolini and cauliflower soufflé
adapted from a Brazilian magazine

1 small onion, finely chopped
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 bunch broccolini, cooked and chopped into small florets
2 cups cauliflower florets, cooked
2 heaping tablespoons light mayonnaise
200g non-fat regular yogurt
2 egg whites
salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/355ºF.
Place the olive oil in a large saucepan and heat over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until lightly golden. Add the broccolini florets and cook for 5 minutes over low heat. Remove from heat and spread the florets in a soufflé pan. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Set aside.
Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
In a food processor or blender, process cauliflower, mayo and yogurt. Place this paste in a bowl, add the egg whites and mix gently. Season with salt.
Pour this mixture over the broccolini and sprinkle with the parmesan. Bake for 20 minutes – I needed 30.
Serve immediately.

Makes 4 servings with 130 calories, 5g fat and 3.86g fiber each

Hay, Hay, it's Donna Day: Guava soufflé with catupiry sauce

I’ve always wanted to take part in foodblog events – 2 months after starting the English version of my blog, I decided to do so.

Tami of Running with Tweezers is hosting “Hay, hay, it’s Donna Day” this time – she was very kind and quickly answered the email I sent her, full of questions and doubts.

I decided to use a very Brazilian recipe - Guava soufflé with catupiry sauce.
Catupiry is a popular kind of cream cheese here and it’s used in many dishes, as pizza topping, pie filling, etc.
This souffle was inspired by a dessert called “Romeo and Juliet” – guava paste served with a sort of cheese called Minas cheese, or catupiry (pictured below):

It was my first souffle, so I was quite apprehensive…
I loved its flavor and texture. But I have to be honest: the sauce was too mild in my opinion. I guess that a drop of honey would make it more interesting, without altering the color or too much of the flavor– I’ll be making this souffle again and will try to adjust the sauce to my taste.

This recipe was created by Carla Pernambuco, a wonderful Brazilian chef that has been mentioned by Patricia Wells in The New York Times.

UPDATE: a dear friend of mine told me that it's possible to make this sauce replacing the catupiry with mascarpone

Guava soufflé with catupiry sauce

Sauce:
200ml milk
100g catupiry cheese

Souffle:
4 egg whites
pinch of salt
220g creamy guava marmalade*

For the sauce: cook the milk and the catupiry in a double boiler – or use a heatproof bowl over simmering water - and beat well with a whisk until you have a smooth even sauce. Set aside to cool.

Preheat the oven to 160ºC/320ºF.

For the souffle: beat the egg whites until soft peaks form – add the salt. Continue beating until stiff peaks form. Gradually add the guava marmalade to the egg whites and mix well with a whisk.Spoon the mixture into the ramekins and place on a baking tray. Bake for 10 minutes or until puffed – increase the oven temperature in the end of the cooking process to make the soufflés golden. Do not open the oven while cooking. Serve immediately with the cool sauce.

*You can use guava paste instead of marmalade – that’s what I used.
Chop the paste in small pieces, add a little water and cook over low heat, stirring constantly with a whisk, until creamy and silky. Set aside to cool before using it.

Serves 4 – I halved the recipe and still got 4 ramekins, 10cm diameter each.