After a brief hiatus from Das Salz in meine Suppe and then an even briefer visit with Calista this summer, in which I was reminded of how awesome she actually is, I have been thinking that it's time to start the blog back up.

And what better way than...Souffle!

I've been experimenting with souffles recently, mostly because I have a link through Adam's work to farm fresh eggs, and plenty of them.  Souffle is surprisingly easy for something that looks and tastes difficult.  I've done two kinds so far - the nut-based souffle and the sauce-based souffle.

The nut-based one was a chocolate almond souffle.  It uses ground almonds as its base, and comes out with a consistency a lot like a flourless chocolate cake but a bit lighter.  It's got a nice flavour, and would be even better with a bit of a sauce to it.  I'm still working on this recipe because it came out slightly heavier than I would have liked, but I'll let you know if I get it right.

The other two I've made were a pumpkin souffle and a cheese souffle. 

 Cheese Souffle
To make the cheese one, you need:
2 eggs
1/4-1/2 cup milk
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp flour
about 1/2 a cup of any cheese you like, grated or in small pieces
 A pinch of mustard, paprika, nutmeg, or your favourite cheese-related spice

 Preheat oven to 350.  Place a baking pan with some hot water in it into the oven. There should be enough water that it will come about 1/4 to half way up the sides of the ramekins, but not so much that it will get into them.

1.  Grease two or three ramekins with a generous coating of butter.
2.  Separate the eggs.  Put the whites into a large mixing bowl.  Save the yolks.
3.  Make a thick cheese sauce.  Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the flour.  Add in  1/4 cup milk, and cook until thick.  Add in the cheese and spices, cook until melted and smooth, and then add a little extra milk if you need it.  The consistency should be still liquid, but very thick, sort of like half-cooked pancake batter.  Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.  When still warm but not boiling, stir in the egg yolks.
4.  Whip the egg whites to stiff peak, then take about 1/3 of the whites and stir them quickly into the cheese sauce.  Pour that mixture back into the rest of the whites, and combine with as few strokes as possible.
5.  Pour the mix into the greased ramekins.  Wipe the edges to make sure the batter is smooth or it won't rise nicely.
6.  Place the ramekins in the oven in the hot water bath, being careful not to let any water into the batter.
7.  Bake for 30-40 minutes until brown on top, risen, and not jiggly.

If you only make 2 servings, fry up the extra batter in a frying pan.  It comes out like a delicious cheesy pancake.

 Low Fat Pumpkin Pie Souffle
You can use that same technique to make a pumpkin souffle that takes just like pumpkin pie.  The best thing is, it's really healthy, with almost no fat and surprisingly little sugar.  They're also gluten free if that's a concern to you.  I greased the ramekins with a very small amount of butter, but you can use cooking spray if you prefer.  Omit the sugar in the ramekins if you use spray.

2 egg whites
1 tbsp white sugar
1 egg yolk
1/4 cup pumpkin
1 tbsp maple syrup
1-2 tbsp low fat sour cream
Whatever spices you like to make it taste like pumpkin pie - I went with nutmeg, ginger, and cinnamon.

1. Put a baking pan of water into the oven and preheat to 350. 
2. Grease 3 ramekins and sprinkle the inside with a little white sugar. 
3. Warm the pumpkin up in a frying pan.  Add the sour cream and syrup.  Add the spices until it tastes how you like your pumpkin pie.  Again, the consistency should be like thick apple sauce or half cooked pancake batter.
4.  Remove from heat and let cool for a few seconds, just enough so that the yolk won't cook when you stir it in, then add the egg yolk.
5. Whip the whites to stiff peak, then add the sugar.  Stir about 1/3 of the meringue into the pumpkin mixture, then pour that back into the meringue and stir gently with a spatula until it's just mixed. 
6. Pour into the ramekins, then clean the rims so it will rise evenly.   Bake in the water bath about 30 min until brown on top and not jiggly.

Enjoy!  Awesome with a little whipped cream - especially if you put Irish cream into it while you're whipping.  If you're keeping to the healthy thing, cool whip will do too.