Impress your guests with this highly sophisticated recipe for vanilla and ginger soufflés, perfect for a dinner party pudding.
You might also love our gin and tonic cheesecake.
Ingredients
- 60g melted and cooled butter to grease
- 85g caster sugar, plus extra to dust the ramekins
- 4 large free-range eggs, separated
- 2 tbsp plain flour
- 250ml whole milk
- 50ml double cream
- ½ vanilla pod, split, seeds scraped
- Squeeze lemon juice
- 15g stem ginger in syrup, drained and very finely chopped
- 15g fresh ginger, finely grated
For the blackberry sauce
- 300g frozen blackberries
- Large splash gin (optional)
- Squeeze lemon juice
- 100g caster sugar
You’ll also need
- 6 x 150ml ramekins
Method
- For the blackberry sauce, put the blackberries in a saucepan with the gin, lemon juice and caster sugar. Add 100ml water and bring to a simmer, cooking until the blackberries have fallen apart and the liquid is syrupy. Strain through a fine sieve, taste and add a little more sugar or gin if you like, then set aside until needed (warm it just before serving).
- Lightly brush the inside of the ramekins with butter using a pastry brush, making even upward strokes from the base to the top. Tip a handful of sugar into a ramekin, then turn and tilt it so the sugar covers it evenly. Tip the excess into the next ramekin. Repeat for all the ramekins.
- In a medium glass bowl, using a balloon whisk, whisk the egg yolks and 35g of the sugar until pale and fluffy, then whisk in the flour until well combined. In a medium heavy-based saucepan, heat the milk and the cream with the vanilla seeds and pod until just steaming.
- Meanwhile, heat the oven to 210°C/190°C fan/gas 6½ and put a baking sheet inside to heat up. When the milk mixture is just steaming, remove the pod, then pour a third of the milk into the egg yolks, whisking thoroughly with the balloon whisk as you go. Very gradually pour in the rest of the milk mixture, whisking.
- Pour the mix back into the pan and set over a medium heat. Whisk continuously as it warms, making sure you reach the corners of the pan. Continue stirring for 1 minute after the mixture has come back to the boil – it should thicken enough to gently hold its shape when swirled. Pour the custard into a baking dish and spread over the base to cool. Cover with a sheet of cling film, making sure it touches the surface to prevent a skin forming. When cool, transfer the custard to a large bowl.
- Put the egg whites and a squeeze of lemon juice into another large clean, dry bowl and whisk using an electric hand mixer until soft peaks form. Add the remaining 50g sugar, 1 tbsp at a time, whisking for 10 seconds before adding the next tbsp. Beat until the whites form stiff glossy peaks. Once cooled, add the two gingers to the custard mixture with a pinch of salt, then whisk well.
- Add one third of the meringue to the cooled custard and whisk gently with a balloon whisk to combine thoroughly. Gently fold in the rest of the meringue with a metal spoon, taking care not to knock out the air.
- Fill each ramekin with soufflé mix to a third of the way full, then firmly tap on a tea towel on a work surface so the mixture evenly disperses in the ramekin. Gently add the rest of the mixture so it comes just above the top of the ramekins. Using a palette knife, evenly and firmly scrape the excess mixture off the top so the mixture has a perfectly flat surface, flush with the top of the ramekins.
- Place gently on the heated baking sheet, put in the oven, then lower the temperature to 200°C/180°C fan/gas 6 and cook for 15-20 minutes until the soufflés are risen and golden on the top, with a small wobble when you shake them.
- Serve immediately at the table with the warmed blackberry sauce. Pierce a hole in the soufflés and pour in the sauce, so the soft inner mixture blends with the sauce – voilà!
Nutrition
- 558kcals Calories
- 25.6g (14.1g saturated) Fat
- 12.8g Protein
- 61.8g (55.5g sugars) Carbs
- 3.6g Fibre
- 0.6g Salt
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