My posting’s slowed down a bit (and my husband Adam has been cranking out his posts like crazy), but I am still cooking (and eating) from this book. It’s good to take breaks every so often, and rather than abandon the blog for those break times (as I have in the past), I’m glad that he’s here to keep it alive and to lend another voice besides my own. Just wanted to get that out there. I’ll pick it back up to speed soon, but for now I’m enjoying watching it be interpreted through someone else’s eyes for a bit.
I find myself with extra heavy whipping cream now and then due to other cooking activities, and I’m the only one in the house that can consume it without much gastrointestinal distress. When I have excesses of ingredients, I try to find Simply Delicious recipes to burn off that kill two birds with one stone–using up a recipe AND the cream, 14-3: Grand Marnier Soufflé is one of those recipes.
I’ve permanently borrowed a bottle from my parents (when you’re in your 30s, parents don’t seem to mind as much if you raid their liquor cabinet), and it’s what we’ve been using for flambéeing and any other instances that call for brandy/cognac/Grand Marnier. Why buy a brand new bottle when there’s plenty of barely touched ones sitting at their house? 🍾
Like they said on the front of the card, most liqueurs would work for this soufflé recipe–it’s pretty basic other than the booze. If you’re not into booze, fruit juice works too–Simply Delicious suggests orange.
Ingredients. Didn’t have half-and-half, so I made a Frankenstein version with lactose-free milk and heavy whipping cream. Talk about your contradictions.
I didn’t find this website telling you how to make paper collars out of parchment paper until now because honestly I didn’t look, but if you want to do it properly, there you go. I was the only one eating any of this, so I didn’t much care how high it got. Therefore, I neglected to make the collar, and went straight to greasing and sugaring the dish without it.
Separated my eggs, and there’s your reason why my soufflé didn’t go very high–I got a bit of yolk in my whites with a lazy/messy crack at the end. Even just that small amount can stop your soufflé from reaching its full height potential.
Melting my butter.
Mixing in the flour.
Thickening up what is essentially a roux, like you’d use for a sauce.
Adding in the rest of the ingredients, sans egg whites.
Whipping my egg whites in a chilled metal bowl while I wait for Pokémon to cross my apartment’s path.
Adding my stiff peaked-egg whites to my yolk/cream mixture.
Looks good so far–I added a quarter-sheet pan underneath for stability, spill protection, and easy oven retrieval.
My oven is not the greatest (one of the perils of apartment living), and it tends to peak/dome my baked goods. Uneven heating can do that, and rotating/temperature monitoring only does so much. I do the best I can, but sometimes it’s just not meant to be.
Nothing a little powdered sugar can’t make look better. Despite the darkened exterior, the middle was not yet cooked (I pulled it early due to it looking very dark about 2/3 of the way through baking) and so therefore much of it was inedible. The part I did eat (the part on top that looks good) was okay, but I’m not a huge Grand Marnier/liqueur person anyway. I’ve had okay luck with other soufflés, but let’s be honest–I didn’t exactly keep high standards the whole way through this one.
Grade: B-
