Smores Souffle

Truthfully I got this idea from a restaurant in Florida. The meal was unmemorable, but when we first sat down the waiter told us that the place specialized in souffles and he went through a list of the types they offered -- one was a Smores Souffle. We didn't have any souffle, but I was intrigued by the idea and told my wife I would create one when we got home -- the opportunity presented itself soon thereafter when she had some ladies over for a small holiday party. So here is what I did:

Joe's Smores Souffle

I made five individual souffles. To make a large souffle use a few more egg whites (7- 8). You shouldn't have to change the amount of chocolate and will likely only use a bit more marshmallow fluff.

5 Lg eggs separated
About 4-5 graham crackers -- pulverized in processor
1/2 cup of sugar or to taste
butter for white sauce (tablespoon or so)
flour for white sauce (tablespoon or so)
1 cup heated milk (I used 1%)
One container marshmallow fluff (7 ozs or so)
One large (4 oz) Hershey's brand chocolate bar (I decided to go with the original)
Optional: dash or two of Cream of Tartar
butter for buttering molds

5 small ramekins

If you haven't read my previous blog on souffles, you might want to start there. But trust me, souffles are EASY.

Prepare ramekins ahead of time by buttering and then sprinkling with the graham cracker crumbs. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

When you have all ingredients ready to go, start with the white sauce. Heat butter over medium flame until melted; stir in flour until blended. Raise heat to med-high and then stir in hot milk. It should thicken right away. Then add sugar and blend well until absorbed. Reduce heat to medium. Mix in two or three of the egg yolks to thicken a bit further and to enrich the sauce. Then break the chocolate bar into pieces and add them to the sauce and stir until they have all been added and are nicely melted.

At this point I truly had to begin the creative part. I decided to add about half the container of the marshmallow fluff to the sauce. I did this by tablespoons and stirred only enough for it to begin to break into clumps. I didn't want the clumps to completely melt at this stage and become incorporated into the chocolate.

Now turn off the heat, remove from burner, and whip the egg whites until soft peaks form (can add cream of tartar while whipping -- helps hold the rise). Blend 1/3rd of egg whites into sauce well, then fold gently remaining egg whites into mixture. Gently spoon mixture into ramekins until full (may puff up a bit above rim which is okay). At this point I added a large dollop of marshmallow gently to the center top of each filled ramekin.

Place these in 350 oven and watch them burst! 10-15 minutes. Mine came up out of the ramekins and formed an amazing mushroom-like shape with the melted ball of marshmallow in the center. These were GREAT!

Optional: sprinkle some more graham cracker crumbs on top when they are done.

Variation: I might try marshmallows themselves the next time. See how that differs from using fluff.

Enjoy!

Joe Koob

Next: Moroccan Fusion Dinner