Soufflé and more custards
Home » Baking  »  Soufflé and more custards
Soufflé and more custards
Soufflés kind of remind us of the preparation of a sponge cake, we separate yolk and later fold in egg whites, however, it is evident that the soufflés have a much higher proportion of eggs to flour and particularly of egg whites. This is why the soufflés rise so much in the oven and also one of the reasons they must be served immediately (within 2 minutes from the oven) because they will rapidly deflate, losing part of its presentation and charm.

Ladyfinger structure & custard filling 

Ladyfingers are a special type of sponge cake, after we prepare the dough the ladyfingers are piped over a sheet pan with parchment paper. We pipe finger shapes similarly to an Éclair but we pipe the fingers on right next to the other as in the end result they are all glued together around your dessert.

The height of the fingers must match the height of your mold, and the length of the ladyfinger will be the circumference of the mold, or 2pi*r. For our 7'' diameter pan we use the old greek approximation of pi and the length of the ladyfinger strip is 22'' long. 

Chef Oliveira also baked a couple of disks matching the shape of the mold as one will be placed on the bottom and one half way when we fill the dessert with our Bavarian custard. After the custard reaches the top we refrigerate until it completely sets, and we finished with a nice freshly cut decoration of strawberries.

Remember, for stirred custards they will not go into the oven again, so treat both the ladyfingers and the custard as ready to eat food. Use disposable gloves when working with them. 

 

The Chocolate Soufflés on pics 5 and 6 where delicious but beware that they must be consumed warm, right away. If you want to have some prepared before as your Mise en place save the batter already portioned before the stage where you add the egg whites.

The ladyfinger structure for our Charlotte is often used for Tiramisu. Charlottes are named after Queen Charlotte, the wife of King George III of England, and were originally made with a filling of charlotte pippins, a type of apple. Today we did it with a Bavarian Cream, this dessert is enjoyed around the world!