Chocolate & Speculoos Soufflés

Photo and Recipe by: the little loaf

Served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, you get an experience that is at once hot and cold, rich and smooth, crunchy and creamy.
I’m not going to say it’s good for your waistline, but it’s definitely good for your soul. This is a dessert that will put a smile on your face. Enjoy.

Ingredients:

For the Speculoos pastry cream


375ml full fat milk
110g single cream
1 large free range egg + 1 yolk
1 tbsp flour
1 tbsp cornflour
55g golden caster sugar
140g Speculoos spread

For the soufflés


125g Speculoos pastry cream (see above)
4 large free range egg whites
30g granulated sugar, plus more for dusting and sprinkling
60g milk chocolate, chopped into chunks
Sea salt crystals (optional)

Method:

For the Speculoos pastry cream


Bring the milk and cream to a simmer in a medium saucepan.
In another bowl, whisk together the egg and egg yolk. Add the sugar, cornflour and flour to eggs and whisk to combine.

Gradually whisk the hot milk and cream into the egg mixture, then return to the same saucepan. Bring to the boil, whisking constantly to avoid burning or lumps for one minute then remove from the heat.
Whisk the speculoos spread into your hot pastry cream. Strain into a bowl and season with a pinch of salt. 

Cover with cling film, directly touching the surface of pastry cream to avoid getting a skin. Set aside until ready to use – this pastry cream can be made up to a day before you want to make the soufflés, just make sure it has come back to room temperature before cooking with it.

For the soufflés

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C. Grease four ramekins (approx. 125ml volume) with butter. Pour some granulated sugar into each one, tipping to shake out the excess so it coats the sides.
Whisk the egg whites in a large clean bowl until frothy. Gradually add the granulated sugar and continue whisking until stiff, glossy peaks form.

Fold a quarter of the whipped egg white into your pastry cream to loosen it, then gently fold in the milk chocolate chips. Fold in the rest of the egg whites carefully, making sure you deflate them as little as possible. Under – rather than over – mixing is preferable here so a few little streaks of white are fine.

Divide the mixture between the four ramekins and run a palette knife over the top to smooth. Run your thumb round the inner edge of each ramekin, through the soufflé mixture, creating a shallow, even channel as you go. This will help your soufflés to rise evenly.

Sprinkle the tops with granulated sugar and a little sea salt (if using), then bake for 10 – 14 minutes. I have to be a little vague here as oven temperatures vary. Mine took a little longer, but it may be because my oven is quite old!

Remove from the oven and serve immediately. Split open at the table with very cold ice cream scooped in, this is the dessert that dreams are made of.