What I’m reading: (and have been reading since it launched!) Ali Dunworth’s Substack, The Kitchen Press - perfect for keeping up to date on Irish food news
What I’m listening to: Raye’s new album, My 21st Century Blues. On repeat :)
What I’m eating: really lovely pastas at Pici, Auckland (below). The pici cacio e pepe was phenomenal - perfectly cooked & perfect amount of pepper
I’m going to file this soufflé recipe under what I like to call “ephemeral desserts”: desserts that have a very limited life span. Desserts that will collapse, melt or otherwise deteriorate mere moments after being served. Desserts that are here for a good time, definitely not for a long time.
Ice-cream (sorbet, semifreddo etc.) definitely falls under this category. It has to be at the table within moments of departing the freezer - particularly in warm weather - or it will melt into a puddle. At Ballymaloe House, the ice-cream on the dessert trolley is served in an ice-bowl (wonderfully retro) to prevent such disasters.
Baked Alaska is the epitome of an ephemeral dessert: it is filled with ice-cream (totally reckless), before being covered in meringue and bruléed to perfection. Whoever decided to blow-torch an ice-cream based dessert with only a thin layer of meringue-based protection has my undying respect and admiration.
Anything flambéd is, of course ephemeral: crèpes Suzette! There is something so chic about serving somebody a flaming, Grand-Marnier soaked crèpe - the flammability only adds to the excitement. Christmas pudding is also charming in its transience: nothing evokes Christmas Day more than the sight of a little boozy fruit-laden pudding, brandy-flames aglow.
Another temperature-sensitive example is the chocolate fondant: an adorable little cake with a molten chocolate centre that has to be served near-immediately after being baked in order to guarantee the right internal texture.
Soufflés definitely belong in this category (both the sweet and savoury kind). A good soufflé defies gravity, expanding upwards as it bakes, producing a tall, dangerously delicate masterpiece that will collapse at the slightest provocation (the provocation in the picture below was the sizeable scoop of ice-cream placed on top).
I have a love/hate relationship with ephemeral desserts.
On the one hand, they’re a nightmare for the anxious disposition. They have to be made last-minute (very bad for someone who loves a prep-heavy meal), last only a few moments, and tend to have very poor structural integrity. They are often temperature reliant, and liable to deteriorate before they even reach the table.
However, they are as fun as they are fleeting. There is something so joyful about a soufflé that is made to order and being whisked to to table so that it can be enjoyed before its inevitable collapse. Ideally, this soufflé will last long enough to reach the table, so that you can poke a little hole in the top, and either pour in cream or float a little scoop of ice-cream on top.
recipe: an ephemeral chocolate soufflé
I wouldn’t exactly call this a showstopper, but it will most likely elicit gasps and giddy smiles from your guests - or if you’re making a solo soufflé (which I really back), it will bring you a moment of pure, private joy. I know you all know how to multiply, but I’ve included a little table here to help you scale up the recipe, which is for one soufflé - but could just as easily be 10!
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