This blue cheese soufflé brought my eight year old around to blue cheese. I made a BIG deal about how fancy soufflés are and how wildly they rise in the oven. We made an activity of checking on it through the oven window every 5 minutes or so while it was baking. It was an exciting moment when it went above the rim of the dish and popped up for everyone to see! Hooray! It worked, phew!

Soufflés can be intimidating, but I have found them much easier than I expected. A few tips can help along the way.

1. Don’t open your oven while the soufflé is in it until you think it is all the way done. The rush of cold air will deflate it.
2. Make sure to press the Parmesan cheese into the butter in the dish. This helps keep it from sticking and makes a nice crispy cheese texture on the outside of your soufflé.
3. Make sure your mixing bowl is totally clean of fat. Otherwise your egg whites won’t rise.
4. Lastly, make sure your eggs are separated properly. If you get any yolk in the whites, you need to start over. There is no picking them out. This is why when I am doing this recipe with children, I always have the three bowl method for separating whites. One bowl for the yolk, one for the white, and one for the shell. Once the white has been properly separated and there is no visible yolk (use white bowls so it’s easier to tell) then you can plop the white into your larger bowl. Repeat with remaining eggs. This ensures that if you accidentally pop a yolk, you’re only ruining one egg white. You can also save any accidentally mixed eggs for scrambled egg later, so they are not wasted, just repurposed.

This is the longest recipe I’ve posted to date. Make sure to read it through in it’s entirety before starting. You will need an oven proof 8 cup dish for this recipe. Soufflé dishes are lovely, but if you have a 8 cup straight edge Pyrex style dish that works too.

Gorgonzola Soufflé

Ingredients

3 Tablespoons butter (plus 3 Tablespoons for smearing on your soufflé dish)

¼ cup Parmesan cheese (plus ¼ cup for the dish)

3 Tablespoons flour

1 cup milk

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon white pepper 

⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper 

⅛ teaspoon nutmeg

5 extra large eggs 

1 ½ ounces blue cheese

⅛ teaspoon cream of tartar 

Instructions

1. Measure out all of your ingredients into separate bowls. 
2. Preheat your oven to 400℉. Smear 3 Tablespoons of butter onto the inside of your 8 cup souffé dish. 
3. Heat milk in a small saucepan over medium heat until it is steaming but before you see any bubbles. (see note) Let your milk cool in the pan. Add your ½ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon pepper, pinch of cayenne, and pinch of nutmeg to your milk. 
4. Separate your eggs into yolks and whites. You have one more yolk than you need, so throw that one away or save it for an egg scramble later. 
5. Heat your other 3 Tablespoons of butter in a small saucepan over medium heat until it melts. Add your flour and stir constantly for 2 minutes. Turn off heat and remove your pan to a cool spot. Add your milk with spices and whisk quickly but carefully. 
6. Return your pot to the stove and heat for 1 minute. Remove your pan from the heat. 
7. Add egg yolks one at a time and whisk after each egg is added. Stir in your blue cheese and ¼ cup Parmesan cheese.  Scoop the mixture into a large mixing bowl to cool. 
8. Put your eggs whites, ⅛ teaspoon cream of tartar, and a pinch of salt into the bowl of an electric mixer with a whisk attachment. Slowly start your mixer and then increase it to medium after a minute. Once you see plenty of bubbles, increase your speed to high and mix until your whites turn into stiff, shiny peaks. See note. 
9. Scoop a large scoop of your stiff egg whites into your sauce mixture and whisk it together. Then gently fold in the rest of your batter. See note. 
10. Pour your batter into your soufflé dish. Smear a large circle on the top of your batter with a spatula to help it rise evenly. 
11. Put your soufflé in the oven (and then don’t open it until you think it’s done or it will deflate!) 
12. Turn your oven down to 375℉. Bake for 30-35 minutes. You want it to be puffed above the dish and nicely browned before you open the door. Try to check with the oven light before you open the door.

Notes

• Special supplies:
  • 8 cup soufflé dish or 8 cup oven safe dish (like a large round Pyrex container)
• Serve your soufflé right away. Your soufflé will deflate within a few minutes, and that is normal! I like this dish with some nice french bread and a salad. 
• Scalding the milk: is important for getting that high rise in a soufflé.
  • There are two reasons for this:
    • When you heat milk, some of its whey proteins are denatured (broken down). This keeps whey protein in milk from messing up the egg protein structure that is really important for soufflé. Whey interacts with both gluten and egg proteins. Sometimes you will see scalded milk used in bread recipes when you want a more tender crumb (small, tight bubbles in the middle of the bread) for things like milk bread or a Hawaiian sweet roll. 
    • Weakening the whey proteins also helps you incorporate more air into your batter to make your soufflé puff up like an air filled balloon when it goes into the oven. 
  • Try not to boil your milk! You just want to gently heat it until you see steam, but no bubbles. Boiling will affect the flavor of the milk. 
• Separating Eggs:
  • The easiest way to do this is using your hands and the three bowl method. Crack eggs one at a time over an empty bowl. Let some of the white drain out. Catch the yolk with one hand plop it back and forth gently between your hands to let all the white drip out. Then put your yolk in on bowl and your white in another. 
• Whisking Egg Whites:
  • Start the mixer slow so that you don’t whisk your eggs right out of the bowl! 
  • Stiff peaks means that when you take your whisk attachment off and flip it upside down, your egg whites stay in a mountain shape without flopping over. If you go too long though, they will separate again. 
• Folding Egg Whites:
  • Folding is a technique used when you don’t want to deflate all the lovely bubbles you made when you whisked your egg whites. Imagine that your batter is filled with tiny bubbles (because it is!) and then mix it as gently as possible. This is a great technique to pull up a video of, because it can be a little tricky to visualize.