Tuesday with Dorie: Chocolate Souffle

TWD's Susan of She’s Becoming DoughMessTic selected Chocolate Souffle, page 406 of Dorie Greenspan's Baking cookbook: Baking, From My Home to Yours. What a delicious chocolate dessert with whipped heavy cream flavored with vanilla bean incensed powdered sugar! LOVED It and YUM~! Lately, chocolate desserts have been popping up on the menu more then usual and hubby keeps saying how he really is not a chocolate person but this dessert is really good. Dorie's Chocolate Souffle was no exception. Airy texture, crunchy outer crust, deep bittersweet chocolate flavor all puffed to high form in a porcelain baking dish, creates a kitchen masterpiece.

Getting dinner done and baking the souffle, both needing the oven, ended up being a feat that was not mastered this evening. Instead, the souffle was created first and tested before dinner was even started; a full serving dolloped with whipped cream. The recipe DOES state the dessert is best served the day (or evening) made and changes texture when refrigerated for storage. Just following directions~!

The ingredients are simple enough, but an essential element to the recipe is having all the ingredients at room temperature before starting.

The Bittersweet chocolate and 1/2 cup of sugar have been melted over simmering water.

The 6 egg whites are whipped to perfection with 2 Tablespoons of sugar.

The gooey chocolate goodness is carefully poured into a buttered and sugared 3 quart porcelain baking dish for souffles and put in the oven to bake for 40 minutes.


A knife was inserted in the crack to test for doneness...and airy perfection has been attained. To get the recipe for the chocolate souffle, click on Susan's link to her blog: She's Becoming Doughmesstic. To see how all the talented TWD bakers did with Susan's choice for this week, click here: TWD.

DINNER:

Beefy Noodle Bake

TIME: Prep: 20 min. Bake: 40 min.

Ingredients:

1-1/2 pounds ground beef

1 cup chopped onion

2 garlic cloves, minced

6 cups cooked wide egg noodles

1-1/2 cups frozen peas

1 can (15 ounces) tomato sauce

1 can (14-3/4 ounces) cream-style corn

3 teaspoons chili powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Directions: In a Dutch oven, cook the beef, onions and garlic over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. Stir in the remaining ingredients. Transfer to a greased 3-qt. baking dish. Cover and bake at 350° for 40 minutes or until heated through.

Dinner was hasty because I make a point of doing yard work as soon as I got home from work, for 2 1/2 hours. The Tuesday with Dorie project did not get done until this evening and dinner still needed to be made. Hectic and crazy feel like adequate terminology. I have a slight habit of trying to fit too much into one afternoon/evening. The time is 10:32 p.m. and I am still typing away. The up side to all this is that I feel accomplished and know I squeezed in as much as I physically could. The down side is that I wanted to work on crocheting a new project. The project takes dedication and patience on my part because I am still learning how to crochet with #10 yarn/thread. The project is an intricate doily that I am not ready to share with anyone just yet. I have only torn out all my progress 4 times since last Saturday. Tension is such a fussy thing!

My greenhouse still holds 2 variegated bamboo plants waiting my attention (purchased at the local farmer's market). I am not sure whether to plant them now or keep them in the greenhouse over the winter and plant in the spring. I have no idea if it hurts or helps bamboo to plant in the fall?

My grape plants are from Italy, can you believe it? I have a friend whom I work with and his father brought over grape vines from Italy and planted them here in Federal Way, WA. My friend clipped about 20 branches of old growth from these now 30 some year old vines and gave them to me to stick into dirt to see what would happen. 5 months later, I have my own Italian grapes started. I am so excited and can not wait to get them planted. I designed the trellis I want the vines to grow on, but as you can see, the plants are little small yet.
The driveway has a long ways to go before it is finished. The gravel gets cement sections poured and where the dirt is, will eventually be lights lining the driveway and red lava rock along with arbor (sp?) trees. The baby trees are already planted but not in the picture.
This is what I have gotten cleared so far in the last 7 days. The leaves are going to turn colors soon, dry up and drop to the ground. Thank goodness I have a leaf blower. As long as the rain is not pouring tomorrow, guess where I will be before starting my new cooking/baking journey for the evening?