Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Lemon Souffle

Hello, everybody! The Fresh Pioneer is back and I decided to attempt one of those 'impossible' desserts. Because with Edna by my side, anything can happen, right?

So, I felt like something fresh, light. Lemony.
Oh, yikes. Not THAT lemony... That's Lemony Snicket. And Jim Carrey playing Lemony's best villain.

I meant this:
I'd never made a souffle, but ignorance never stopped me before, so I found a little recipe. It looked oh-so-easy.

Preheat oven to 375F.

Butter your ramekins and lightly dust them with sugar. Now, I'd been searching and searching for Fireking dishware because I wanted to make something fun in those old oven-safe mugs and teacups. And in that junk shop in town, I found these. FREE. Dirty and piled in a box.

Whee!

So, whisk together 8 large egg yolks, 2 TBS flour, 2 TBS of the sugar.
Bring 1 cup whole milk and 2 TBS fresh lemon zest to a boil and then slowly whisk into the yolk mixture to make sure it doesn't cook the yolks. Return to the heat and whisk until thickened.

 Whisk in 2 TBS butter and 1/4 cup lemon juice.


Now, set the mixture in a cool spot. You get to see the inside of my freezer. BONUS. (See all our summer produce? Yikes. It's January and we're running low on corn! Horrors!)
Stir in 1 bit of the egg whites until blended then fold in the rest carefully with a spatula. Edna was enjoying the rest after all that egg-white beating. *whew*

Fill the dishes to the top and bake for approximately 16 minutes. Dust with powdered sugar and serve RIGHT AWAY. The picture is about 20 seconds after it came out of the oven and it's already half as tall. Huh. Souffles are the drama queens of desserts.

"Not gonna eat me right now? Fine! I QUIT!"

 
And my little Fireking mugs and teacups were just perfect! I was so tickled to be able to put them in the oven. I was a little worried they would explode. But no such thing.
 
Made to last.
 
Not like souffles.
 
Until next time!

 




10 comments:

  1. Oooh, you and Edna make souffles look so easy!

    And I love the Fireking ramekins (aka cups!).

    I have some custard cups - they'd work, wouldn't they?

    I had to laugh at your Lemony Snicket reference! My daughter played the school days concert with the symphony last week, and they played a piece with narration that had been written by Lemony Snicket. She said it was hilarious...for those with discerning minds :) The school kids loved it.

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    Replies
    1. I love Lemony Snicket (and his real life counter part). I really do. He has such a great sense of humor and has never let anybody tell him what was FUNNY.

      Because the world is big enough for lots of different kinds of funny.

      Have you read his 'why we broke up' blog? I just die laughing.

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  2. I love your new teacups, Virginia! And I can't believe they were free.

    This sounds so yummy. I wonder if my guys would like this? Hubby would probably be okay, but those young fellas are partial to chocolate. And meat. And potatoes.

    Sigh.

    They are so set in their ways. Not to mention so typically male.

    Nah, I don't want to waste this on them. However, with baby girl getting married, there will be showers and lots of girlie get togethers. This would be perfect!

    Whoo-hoo! I'm all over this one.

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    1. Oh, Mindy, must warn you the souffles are very temperamental!!!!

      I can't wait to see what comes from the weddings preparations!

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    2. These look so stinkin' delightful and tempting! Love the concept of the old Fire King dishware, that's so retro!!!!! Laughing at how perfect that is!!!

      Mindy, we made gorgeous layered tarts for Seth and Lacey's beautiful "Fall in the Museum Barn" reception and they were a huge hit on our pastry table. Souffles are a pain in the butt for a table, but the tarts... and you could do the same thing with a lemon meringue tart.... are more dependable. But that's just my Yankee advice!!!!

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    3. P.S. Mindy, the tale on the cups...

      We had an old auction house here that was boarded up for 35+ years.

      Finally someone bought the land and didn't want to bulldoze the entire area, so they started opening the warehouses for a few hours every day.

      Some days was free glassware, some was free furniture, some was free mirror, etc.

      Well, some of it was AMAZINGly old, especially the old highboy furniture which I missed! (They needed a LOT of work, one of my friends snagged three, but she's good at that sort of refurbing.)

      But the glassware was in boxes on the floor. Can you imagine carefully rooting through china, 70's ware, 50's fireking, and the like? All mismatched? It was fun but very dirty.
      I think they've trucked it all off to the dump now. I only went once and had a lot of fun!

      The last time I drove by, they'd set all the old doors out in the front (piles and piles and piles of windows and doors). I almost drove off the road. But there's only so much time in the day for crafting. :)

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    4. That sounds like a packrat/dump-picker's dream!

      I'm reformed, of course. Rehabilitated and clean.

      Moving will do that to you.

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    5. I know. I thank God every day that I have 6 kids and a small house! Otherwise, I would be on that show about hoarders...

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  3. Virginia, you're a brave woman! I'm not sure I'll take this on. But it sure does look worth it!

    Do you beat all 8 egg whites?

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  4. honestly, I can say 'I made souffle' and leave it at that.

    They were fun, interesting, the kids liked them... But for protability, timeliness, and ease, I'd give this recipe a 5/10.

    And yes, beat all the eggs!

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