Lemon curd and chocolate souffle

[oyceter]

For personal reference and archival purposes...

Lemon curd
adapted from Alton Brown's Good Eats recipe, as I like my lemon curd really sour

Double boiler, or a metal bowl that just fits into a pot without touching the bottom

5 egg yolks
1/2 c. sugar
4 lemons, zested and juiced (1/2 c. lemon juice)
1 stick butter, cut into pats and chilled

Assemble double boiler by pouring about an inch of water into your pot and bringing it to a simmer.

Combine egg yolks and sugar in your metal bowl and whisk until smooth. Measure juice and add cold water if necessary (better with just juice though). Add juice and zest to egg mixture.

Once the water simmers, turn the heat to low and place bowl on pot. Whisk until light yellow and the mixture coats the back of a spoon (i.e. there should be a thin film when you take the spoon out, and when you wipe your finger across the back, the mixture shouldn't cover up the empty spot again). Remove from heat and add butter in one pat at a time, waiting until it fully melts before adding more.

Serve on scones!

Chocolate souffle
taken from Joy of Cooking

Amazing, I have successfully made this twice now, and I say this noting that I am a holy terror when it comes to baking because I tend to not follow recipes. It helps that something about the chocolate stabilizes the egg foam so that the souffle batter can be refrigerated up to 24 hours before baking.

Double boiler (see above) or microwave or heating pad
6 10-11 oz. ramekins (or 4 12 oz.)
Prep ramekins by rubbing butter all over the inside, then sprinkling sugar over the butter and getting rid of any loose sugar. Make sure the sugar covers every bit of the inside.

8 oz. semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped
6 tbs unsalted butter
2 tbs rum, coffee, or water
6 large egg yolks
6 large egg whites at room temperature
Heaping 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 c. sugar

Preheat oven to 375F

Combine chocolate, butter and water in a heatproof bowl on the double boiler (microwave/heating pad). Let it cool for 10 min. and then whisk in egg yolks (note to self: cooling not skippable unless you want scrambled eggs).

In another bowl, beat egg whites until foamy. Add cream of tartar and beat till soft peaks form. Gradually beat in sugar. Beat until peaks are stiff but not dry. Stir 1/3 of the whites into the chocolate mixture, then fold in the rest. Divide evenly in the ramekins.

Note to self: wiggle ramekins until the batter coats the rim, then use finger to draw a circle around the rim to make sure the souffle rises straight.

Bake for approx. 20 min., or until an inserted stick comes out slightly wet and with a bit of batter sticking on. Serve, preferably with fruit coulis*!

* Fruit coulis: take frozen fruit (or fresh, but I don't waste fresh on cooking unless it is slightly beyond its prime), boil in some water. Add lemon juice (or orange juice, if you decide to do this at midnight before realizing you don't have enough ingredients) and sugar to taste, though add lightly, since you will boil out most of the water. If necessary, after the sauce is to your taste, puree in blender, then strain if you hate getting raspberry seeds stuck in your teeth.

Fruit coulis is the Best Thing Ever and it's easy and miraculously makes me feel much less guilty about forgetting to eat fruit and letting it go mushy in the fridge and I eat it on plain yogurt with honey and more frozen fruit all the time.

Comments

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Yum! I love sour lemon curd, too. Now that you can make that, you can basically make lemon meringue pie, as long as you have a mechanical mixer to beat egg yolks. It is something to use the whites for!

[oyceter]

Oh cool! Though I am scared of pies largely because of my fear of crust....

[vom-marlowe.livejournal.com]

Next time we get together, I'll show you pie crust if you show me souffle! Souffles terrify me!

[oyceter]

Will do! Though quite honestly, I don't know if I can make non-chocolate souffles... I should try some time..

[vom-marlowe.livejournal.com]

Only chocolate is A-OK by me!! Any souffle is a triumph, as far as I am concerned. Plus, I have egg fear, and chockie is one of the few things that would make the scary eggs worthwhile.

[oyceter]

I am actually ok with eggs! I think this is because I decided (I have no idea why...) to dive into cooking with things like lemon curd (egg yolks) and tiramisu (egg whites).

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Crust really, really is not that hard at all. The biggest trick to keeping things flaky is temperature and avoiding over-mixing -- whatever fat you use should be cool, and it helps if you can chill your rolling pin, mixing bowls, etc., run some cool water over your hands before you start, to keep it from softening too much as you mix the pastry; it's also good to relax the mixed dough in the fridge for a while before rolling it. You want some of the fat to remain in tiny little solid chunks, as that's what provides the flakiness.

Other than that, well, Silpats are a godsend for rolling out dough without having it stick or tear; waxed paper can help too. But really, don't fret too much about perfection in rolling -- unless you're doing something with a top crust, any little tears can be stuck back together and covered up by the filling. :)

And you can always cheat and do a crumb crust instead! They're ridiculously easy, but can still be a lot of fun in experimenting with different cookie and cracker types to complement the fillings. Graham crackers and chocolate wafers are two of the most typically used bases, but Nilla wafers and gingersnaps can also make wonderful crusts, or Royal Creem crackers...mmmm.

I heartily recommend James McNair's Pie Cookbook (http://www.dianasdesserts.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/cookbooks.cb047/) -- I seem to be lacking the fear-of-pastry gene as pies were one of the first things I really learned to cook well as a child, but this book still taught me a lot of wonderful new tricks and encouraged me to experiment further with ingredients and techniques. It's beautifully illustrated, very informative and every recipe I've tried from it has been delicious. If you like pie and pretty cookbooks, you NEED a copy. :)

[oyceter]

I.... yeah. I think it's one of those things that I need to see and touch and do before I get it. I've looked at several ways to make crust right, from Joy of Cooking to Alton Brown and other food-sciencey things, so I sort of get the general gist of it. I just need actual experience and learning what good crust feels like and when to stop adding water and etc.

I think I am going to make one of my friends in the area teach me; she just whips out ingredients and makes it without consulting anything! I was very impressed.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

We're making these this weekend, right? Can you bring the souffle dishes?

[oyceter]

Yup and yup!

Hey, if I'm making souffle, do I get to make other people do dishes? (I loathe doing dishes with a passion.)

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Cooks do not need to do dishes.

[oyceter]

Whoo!

[tatterpunk.livejournal.com]

Mmmm, sour lemon curd. Can't wait to try it -- thanks!

[oyceter]

Yay! I don't quite remember just how sour it is, but it is definitely more sour than the original recipe.

Also also, I altered the original by adding more lemon juice and cutting down the sugar. The first time I made it, I just added more lemon juice, and the curd was a little too watery, so I don't know. Maybe adding even more juice and cutting even more sugar? I am not quite sure how the science works...

[tatterpunk.livejournal.com]

Hmm. It sounds like it might be best to keep the juice constant and reduce the sugar only. I'll try it and let you know how it turns out.

[oracne.livejournal.com]

Queen!!!

[oyceter]

Yes! I got back into them after, uh, seeing someone cover We Are the Champions and We Will Rock You on American Idol, bwahaha.

Well, that and Snoop Dogg's cover of We Will Rock You.

Well, that and Bohemian Rhapsody is just made of pure awesome.

[oracne.livejournal.com]

I obtained that ep of AI for the Queen, but still haven't watched it. I have it somewhere...Brian May was on it, right?

[oyceter]

Oh huh, no, another one actually. The current season had Michael Johns covering them, I think last week?

[oracne.livejournal.com]

Ah. I heard they also did a Dolly Parton ep--how was that?

[oyceter]

They did! It was.. ok? I do not know, as I don't know much Dolly Parton, but the week before was better, imho.

[oracne.livejournal.com]

Her recent albums are really good, if you like bluegrass: THE GRASS IS BLUE and LITTLE SPARROW, especially.

[ponygirl2000.livejournal.com]

Yay for lemon curd! There used to be this great bakery that would make these intense ginger muffins - they'd cut the top off, drop in a huge dollop of lemon curd, put the top back on and serve it with a spoon. So good! Sadly the owner retired and I keep planning to recreate it at home but haven't made an attempt yet.

[oyceter]

I loooove lemon curd so much! And omg! I saw how much it was going for in fancy supermarkets and was amazed.

Plus, I think mine tastes better, haha.

[chomiji]

Wow - lemon curd, chocolate souffle, and Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody"! It just doesn't get any better than that ... .

;-)

[oyceter]

Hee, yes!