Easy Chocolate Soufflé

My hunt for great desserts leads me to all kinds of interesting ideas. Most of my recent desserts use chocolate as a base, and in my attempt to branch out and diversify this time, I….made another chocolate dessert. Now, I know what you’re thinking – “easy” and “soufflé” don’t belong in the same sentence together. Normally, you’d be right. But this was my first attempt to bake a soufflé, and I assure you – it was easy and the results were perfect. Nevermind that I found this recipe in a cookbook even older than I am, this recipe works just as well today.

Recipe adapted from The Love of Eating Cookbook

Difficulty: Easy
Active Prep Time: About 10 minutes
Total Prep Time: 1½ hours
Special Equipment: Food Processor
Serves: 4 – 6

Soufflé Ingredients:

• 1½ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 5 eggs
• 8 ounces cream cheese, cut into 4 blocks
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1 tablespoon spiced rum
• Pinch of salt

Optional Vanilla Cream Ingredients:

• 1 cup cream
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup vanilla ice cream, softened

Instructions:

(If making Vanilla Cream, prepare up to 2 hours in advance)

1. Whip cream with sugar and vanilla until stiff.

2. Fold whipped cream into the ice cream. Refrigerate until needed.

(Move onto the soufflé)

3. Preheat the oven to 375ºF.

4. Place the chocolate chips in a food processor.

5. In a small saucepan, heat the heavy cream until it begins to boil, then pour into the food processor with the chocolate chips.

6. Blend for about 1 minute.

7. While it continues to blend, add the eggs slowly – 1 at a time – until all 5 are fully blended.

8. Continue blending, and add the cream cheese, vanilla extract or rum (I used rum) and pinch of salt. Continue blending for about a minute, or until all ingredients are fully incorporated.

9. Pour the mixture into a buttered 1½ quart soufflé dish. I didn’t actually have a dish that size, so instead, I made due with one about half that size, plus 4 smaller Ramekins.

10. If you DO have the 1½ quart dish, bake for 1 hour and serve hot. Top will be slightly cracked. In my configuration, however, the smaller Ramekins needed only 25 minutes, while the larger one required 45 minutes.

11. If you made the vanilla cream, spoon it over the top and enjoy!

Additional Notes:

If you prepare these in advance and aren’t able to serve them fresh from the oven, don’t despair. They can be reheated and will even puff back up again once they do. For a smaller soufflé, about 1 minute in a microwave should be plenty. Just keep an eye on it and you’ll know when it’s ready once it’s risen out of its Ramekin again.