Twice Baked Mushroom Soufflé

150g chestnut mushrooms, finely sliced

3 medium eggs

A small handful of grated gruyere cheese

A splash of milk

Salad to serve

Salt

Pepper

preparation 2 mins • you cook for 17 mins • total time 1 hr 7 mins

Serves 2

Watch a 30 second preview of my cook-along video below

If you cannot view the video below, click here to download QuickTime from Apple's website.

These light, fluffy bites of mushroom heaven are baked twice, meaning that, unlike traditional soufflés, they're not intended to be tall towers that must be served immediately. You can do Part One of the recipe in advance (taking you up to the point where the soufflés are cooled, before they are baked for the second time). This makes these starters perfect for a dinner party - just pop them in the oven for five minutes before you're ready to eat. This is a two part recipe. In Part One we make the soufflés. In Part Two we turn them out and bake them again.

2 ramekins -greased and bases lined with baking parchment

Baking tray

Food processor

Electric whisk

Large frying pan/wok

Large metal bowl

Large mixing bowl

Small bowl for the mushroom mix

Large metal spoon

Spoon to stir

Before you start, preheat your oven to 170c. Have all the ingredients & equipment out and plugged in. Put a frying pan/wok on the hob on a high heat and click here!

Before you start, preheat your oven to 200c. Have your cooled (and sunken) soufflés ready and click here!

Put your oven on to 170c to preheat. Put a frying pan/wok on the hob on a high heat. Pop your greased, base-lined ramekins into the fridge until needed.

Pour about a teaspoon of oil into the pan and throw in the sliced mushrooms. Season with a good pinch of salt and pepper, stir and cook for 3 minutes. Whilst the mushrooms are cooking, separate the egg whites and yolks, putting the whites into the metal bowl and the yolks into the other bowl.

Once the mushrooms have been frying for 3 minutes, remove them from the heat. Put aside about 10 mushroom slices onto a plate, then put the remaining mushrooms into your food processor, along with a splash of milk. Blend until you have a smooth-ish, thick paste and empty out into a bowl.

Next, whisk the egg whites until they reach the stiff peaks stage. This should take about 30 seconds. Then, using the same whisk (no need to rinse), whisk the yolks for about 10 seconds. The next stage is to add the mushroom mix slowly into the yolks. Do this by whisking continuously until blended together.

Using a large metal spoon, add a spoonful of the egg whites into the yolk/ mushroom mixture and carefully fold together. Repeat this until all the whites have been added and you are left with a light, fluffy, mushroom-coloured mixture. You want to still be able to see little lumps of white, as per the first photo on the right. Finally, add half the cheese, fold, then add the other half and fold again.

Take your ramekins out of the fridge and place some of the reserved mushroom slices on the bottom (I forget to do one of mine in the video!). Spoon the soufflé mix evenly between the ramekins and lightly tap the sides to ensure there are no big air pockets.

Pop the ramekins onto a baking tray and into the oven for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes, remove from the oven and leave the ramekins to cool for 30 minutes. (You can make the soufflés in advance up to this point. Cover and chill, then bring them up to room temperature before continuing with the recipe).

Finally, preheat your oven to 200c. Turn the soufflés out onto the baking tray, (remembering to remove the baking parchment!) Pop the tray into the oven for 5 minutes then serve with a little green side salad.

I hope that you enjoy them.

Name:
Email: