Recipe: Gruyère cheese Soufflé

Recipe

1- Make the butter melt into a saucepan then pour the flour, blend them and let the mixture cook during 3 minutes (you have prepared a “roux”)

2- Pour, on the “roux” (still hot) the milk that needs to be cold while still whisking to make a “béchamel” that must be smooth and quite sticky, then add salt (not much because the cheese is salted), black pepper and nutmeg. Quickly incorporate the eggs yolks (not the whites), let the mixture cook during 3 minutes and keep aside out of the heat

3- Pre-heat the oven at 392°F

4- Pour the egg whites into a large salad bowl, add a pinch of salt, whip them slowly during15 seconds or so then go faster to whisk them until they form soft peaks and then go faster until the peaks become “hard”

5- Pour 2 soup spoonfuls of the stiffly egg whites into the béchamel, use the whip to make the mixture be smooth, then add the remaining stiffly egg whites with a wooden spatula very carefully until they are well incorporated (like making a meringue) then add the cheese with the same care

6- Pour into the mould so that it is ¾ full and make the top flat using a spatula

7- Now (this is a professional trick), heat some water into a deep plate (like preparing a bain marie), put the mould into it (water must be boiling), keep it inside the plate during 3 minutes, then take the mould out of the plate and put it into the oven at mid height of it and keep it inside the oven during 20 minutes

8- After the first 5 minutes of the cooking (another professional trick), open the door of the oven and very quickly, deep 1 inch of a sharp blade of a knife between the mixture and the internal side of the mould all around the mould (this will allow the soufflé to rise fully vertical) and so, 15 minutes after take the mould out of the oven and serve it immediately