The Alphabet Challenge "C"

Chocolate Souffles:
I was going to save this post for tomorrow, but I'm MUCH too excited. Yes, I've come across something so incredibly sexy that I must summon all of my strength to not freak out as I type. I have made chocolate souffles and I am proud. These puffy little brown pillows have captured my imagination and I sit here dreaming up all of the glorious things I could make into a souffles; berries and herbs and flavors are floating through my mind on rivers of whipped egg whites. Before this gets obscene, I should give you he recipe (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/chocolate-souffles-recipe/index.html) by the trustworthy crew in the salt mines known as the Food Network Kitchens. Yes, I made changes (shame on me) but I was only serving 4 so I did a half recipe, after reading that it makes about 18 ounces of batter when split and I was using 4 ounce ramekins. Now, if you read the recipe you'll see that it only calls for 1/2 a teaspoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice. Half of a half of a teaspoon is a quarter of a teaspoon and that's smaller than a rat's tushy. I know that we're only on 'C' and we don't know each other that well, but I am NOT about to cut and juice an entire, beautiful lemon just for a 1/4 teaspoon of juice. So instead, I used a 1/4 teaspoon of Cream of Tartar and a pinch of salt to beautify the chocolate flavors (which the recipe left out). Other than that, I did my best to follow the recipe. I'm not exactly an expert on egg-whipping technique but the detailed instructions were written to help the intermediate bakers such as myself to make sure that we know what to look for. I was good up until the term "ribbon stage" so I looked it up and found this nice video by Z's cup of Tea and it shows what exactly "ribbon stage" means (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CIw9xAjqDA). I appreciated the notes, so don't skip to the end, if you can help it. Zoe is pretty helpful in technique-stuff so I recommend sifting through her other videos and her blog. Finally, in the recipe it says you can butter the ramekins ahead of time BUT I put mine in the freezer for about 10 minutes while I whipped the egg yolks and melted the chocolate and the "crust" came out perfectly. My mother said the crust was the best part and I have to agree with her on that. It added a bit of texture to an otherwise soft, moist gloopy thing. She also likened it to a brownie-cloud, which I thought was an accurate description. MAKE THESE. You know you want  to~

Peace, love, and chocolate,
Aubrey~