First Post Ever - Raspberry Souffles!

Raspberry Souffles from Eating Out Loud

Okay, so I started this blog as a way of cataloging my ever-growing list of projects.  With the economy the way it's been for the past couple of years, there's been a huge resurgence in everything "homemade" from food to furniture.  My general thought is why buy something when you can make it?  Each week I will try and post something new I've attempted to create (hopefully successfully), be it a new recipe or craft!  I'm looking forward to sharing my homemade adventures with you!

My First "New" thing I decided to try were these Raspberry Souffles courtesy of Eating Out Loud. I've never made a souffle before - the word sounds very intimidating and scary, but it was actually super easy. Here's the recipe:

Raspberry Souffle

inspired by The Art and Soul of Baking

1 teaspoon butter (for greasing ramekins)

6 oz fresh raspberries

1/4 cup, plus 2 teaspoons sugar

4 egg whites

1.Preheat oven to 400F (200C)

2.Butter the insides of six 1/2 cup ramekins

3.Puree raspberries in a blender or food processor, then strain through a fine mesh sieve to remove the seeds. I considered leaving the seeds in until I realized just how prolific they are — you really need to strain the puree. You should yield about 1/2 cup after straining.

4.Add 2 teaspoons sugar to the strained puree and set aside

5.In a mixer, beat four egg whites until they begin to thicken. Continue to beat the whites while you slowly add 1/4 cup sugar. Mix until egg whites form stiff peaks and are glossy.

6.Add 1/3 of the egg whites to the puree and slowly fold in. Continue by adding the remaining egg whites, folding in until no white streaks remain.

7.Spoon the souffle batter into the ramekins, filling to the top and leveling off with the back of a spatula.

8.Place filled ramekins on a baking sheet and bake on a rack positioned in the bottom 1/3 of the oven.

9.Bake for 8-10 minutes or until the souffle rises 1/2″ above the rim.

10.Serve immediately with a sprinkle of powdered sugar!

I used frozen raspberries for this and cut the recipe in half since there are only two of us. Which means I ended up eating two. . .The taste was good, but one was definitely enough!  I also used glass pyrex custard cups instead of ceramic ramekins. The color was gorgeous and the taste was pretty raspberry-ish! Straining all of the seeds out of the raspberry puree was probably the hardest part. I couldn't get a pretty picture of mine, but check out the image from Eating Out Loud. They really do look that pretty and pink when done! The good thing I learned was that you can pretty much make this souffle recipe with any fruit you want - just substitute out the raspberries and you have a pretty fancy, restaurant-quality dish!