Orange and Blackberry Souffle

Aka HEAVEN!

I had planned on doing a different post tonight, but made this dessert tonight and while the flavours are still lingering in my mouth I just had to write about it!

I discovered the love of Souffle's only about two months ago when I attempted my very first savoury one. I have now made 3 different souffles, and each of them will be on this blog eventually as they were each amazing (if I do say so myself!!).

We had some blackberries in the fridge that needed to be used, and so I wondered how best to use them. I was of course not just going to eat them as is, that's just silly! They need to take the form of something other than fruit if I'm going to enjoy my one serve a day!

I found a recipe that I mostly liked, changed the lemon for orange and made the method the same as how I'd made the savoury souffles in the past. I always thought souffle's were going to be so difficult to make, so regrettably never tried. Very happy to have remedied this error of my ways! I think this is almost a perfect dessert for everywhere in the world right now because as we're getting cooler over this side, you just eat it as its still piping hot; and for everyone approaching summer, just wait a few minutes longer and add a dollop of ice cream! Its light and fluffy for a summery dessert, and yet straight out of the oven is warm, bubbly and ever so comforting!

Ingredients:

4 eggs, separated and at room temperature (unless your room is currently 35 degrees as per The Gap!)

1/3 cup white sugar

1/4 cup plain flour

1 cup milk (I used whole/full cream but I think it should be fine with skim milk)

1/3 cup orange juice, from 1 large freshly squeezed orange

Fresh blackberries, whole

Method:

1. In a medium saucepan, combine the egg yolks, sugar and plain flour. Whisk together until well combined and turn the heat on low. 

2. Add the milk bit by bit, whisking between each addition. When the milk is all added, it should be nice and smooth. 

3. Whisk in the orange juice and turn the heat up to bring the mixture to the boil. 

4. Take off heat and allow to cool for about 10 minutes. In the meantime, prepare the rest of the steps. 

5. Prepare the ramekins by spreading melted butter in a ramekin dish and then coating with sugar. This is a very important part of a souffle as it allows the souffle to rise without sticking to the sides of the dish. 

6. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites together until soft peaks form. Add in 2 extra tablespoons of sugar and beat until the soft peaks become firm. This usually takes about 3-4 minutes on a high powered electric beater. 

7. Slowly fold the beaten egg whites with the orange mixture until well combined and smooth. You don't want to over-mix these two or you'll lose all the air out of the freshly beaten egg whites. 

8. In the sugar/butter prepared ramekins, place as many whole blackberries as you like in the bottom. 

9. Spoon in the souffle mixture on top of the berries, all the way to the top. 

10. Bake in the oven at 205 degrees celcius (400F) for approximately 18 minutes (approx!!) but check them after 15 as all ovens are different and you do not want to burn these!!! 

The tops will have risen well above the ramekin dishes (so don't put them on the top shelf in your oven) and they should be golden brown. 

Serve and eat immediately! I would probably add a little clotted cream next time if I was being extra cheeky, but we inhaled ours as is! The Blackberries created a beautiful sauce at the bottom which seeped 1/3 of the way up the souffle which was both beautiful and delicious! 

I halved this recipe to just make one for Pete and one for myself, but kind of wish I hadn't.... one wasn't quite enough!