Stan’s Obligatory Blog

In my continuing effort to find things to do so I can get out of the house, I signed up for a cooking class on soufflé making. I’ve made chocolate soufflés before, using the instructions in The Joy of Cooking, but I was never sure if I was doing it right, since I’d never seen anyone else do it. So I thought it might be interesting to see how the pros do it. Turns out I was not far off the mark. But I was apparently making it harder than it needed to be. And also, the ramekins I was using were not quite the right shape, and apparently that and their weight do have an effect.

The class itself was a combination of demonstration and actual practice. They gave us a sheet with recipes for four or five kinds of soufflés. They demonstrated making and then fed us a Gorgonzola and walnut soufflé and salad to start. The main meal was salmon and asparagus in a Gruyère soufflé and a Roulade, which was basically a sheet of Gruyère soufflé rolled up with mushrooms and caramelized onions inside. For the hands-on part, we made chocolate and raspberry soufflés. It was a pretty fun time.