Soufflé A Chocolate (for 6 to 8 people)

Melting the chocolate
3 Tbsp. Orange Concentrate
1 cup semisweet chocolate morsels or bits (or 6 ounces or squares of semisweet baking chocolate, broken into small pieces)

Bring a small saucepan one third full of water to the boil and remove from heat. Place instant coffee in a slightly smaller saucepan, add 3 Tbsp. boiling water, and dissolve coffee; stir chocolate into coffee and set in the pan of hot water. Stir briefly until chocolate starts to melt, then set aside; finish later.

Preparing the baking dish;
The oven
a 6-cup soufflé dish 3 1/2 to 4 inches deep
1/2 Tbsp. Softened butter
2 to 3 Tbsp. Cake flour

Smear inside of baking dish with softened butter to cover bottom and sides with a light film. Roll cake flour or cornstarch around in dish; knock out excess. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

The collar

Soufflé will rise to a height of 6 to 7 inches, or about 3 inches over rim of dish; sides of soufflé must be supported during baking. Make a collar as follows: Cut a piece of aluminum foil 12 inches wide and 1 1/2 inches longer than the circumference of the dish. Fold in half lengthwise, butter one side, and surround dish with foil, buttered side of foil against sides of dish. Secure with a straight pin, head down for quick removal.

The Soufflé sauce base

1/3 cup cornstarch (sift starch into 1/3-cup measure; sweep off excess with straight edge of a knife)
A 1 1/2-quart saucepan 1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup granulated sugar 3 Tb softened butter

Place starch in saucepan, add a few tablespoons of milk, and beat vigorously with a wire whip to blend completely. Beat in the rest of the milk and the sugar. Stir over moderately high heat, reaching all over sides, corners, and bottom of pan until sauce comes to the boil and thickens. Boil, stirring, 1/2 minute. Clean sauce off sides of pan with a rubber spatula; spread the butter over the top of the sauce. (If not used immediately, keep warm over simmering water, sauce lumps when cold and is difficult to smooth out.)

Finishing the sauce base

5 eggs

Just before baking the soufflé, scrape the sauce base into a large mixing bowl (for easy blending); beat in the melted chocolate, which should be perfectly smooth and tepid. Separate the eggs, beating the yolks into the sauce base and dropping the whites into your egg-white bowl (being sure bowl is absolutely clean and dry, and that you have no specks of yolk mixed in with the whites).

The egg whites

2 extra egg whites, making 7 in all
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
Pinch of salt
2 Tbsp. Granulated sugar

Using a large, clean, dry wire whip (balloon size) or an electric mixer, beat the egg whites at moderate speed for a moment until they begin to foam. Beat in the cream of tartar and salt, and continue beating at fast seed until egg whites form soft peaks. Sprinkle on the sugar and continue beating until egg whites form stiff peaks, like a clown's pointed cap, tip bending slightly down.

Folding in the egg whites

With a rubber spatula, stir one fourth of the beaten egg whites into the chocolate sauce base, to lighten it. Scrape the rest of the egg whites on top and fold them delicately and quickly into the sauce base by cutting down from top to bottom of bowl, bringing spatula toward you to side of bow, turning blade flat with side of bowl, and lifting out. You are thus bringing a bit of the chocolate and egg whites quickly, and to deflate the egg whites as little as possible; the whole operation should take less than a minute.

Baking (Oven has been preheated to 375 degrees.)

Set Soufflé over high heat for 30 seconds, to warm it. Then place in middle or lower-middle level of oven. Do not open oven door for 35 to 45 minutes; soufflé will be done in about 55 minutes. It is ready when it has risen up to or slightly over the aluminum collar, and will usually show the faintest line of shrinkage from the collar. A trussing needle or straw inserted through the side of the puff should come out almost clean. (If soufflé is not baked long enough, the sides will collapse.) Remove from oven, set on a serving dish, take out the collar pin, and gently dislodge collar all around. Serve immediately, accompanied by sweetened, lightly beaten cream.

How to serve a soufflé

Hold a serving spoon and fork back to back above the soufflé and plunge sharply into the top crust, spreading crust apart quickly. Serve, and repeat for each crust.

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