Are you intimidated by making a soufflé? You mustn’t be. You might be surprised that after making souffles since the 70’s, my very favorite, most reliable recipe is by Julia Child!

For most soufflés, you begin by making a roux, which is melted butter and flour, combined and stirred in a pan until the flour is no longer raw. You end up with kind of a doughy mess in the pan. Next, you add milk and stir until the mixture forms a thickened sauce. The difference with Julia’s recipe is that you take the butter/flour mixture off the heat, and then add the milk. It still thickens and forms the sauce just from the residual heat in the pan! This is the “base” of your dish.

Still off the heat, you whisk in the egg yolks one at a time. Then, and this is amazing, you can set this mixture aside and let it sit as long as two hours!

When you are ready to bake the soufflé, you whip egg whites to the stiff peak stage, and add them in three batches, alternating with your grated cheese to the egg yolk mixture. Carefully whisk, then scrape into your prepared soufflé dish and bake as directed.

Julia breaks down the steps with clean and simple logic:
1) Prepare the soufflé dish
2) Make the butter/flour/milk base
3) Add the egg yolks one at a time
4) Whip the egg whites
5) Add egg whites and grated cheese alternatively to the bowl
6) Fold mixture to blend gently and place in the prepared baking dish
7) Bake

This structure makes a notoriously fussy dish feel completely manageable.

Cheese soufflés are a wonderful choice when you want a light supper. The soufflé, along with a simple salad, is amazingly satisfying. It hit the spot for Dennis and me after so much overindulgence over the Thanksgiving holiday! The only downside, according to my resident dishwasher, is that it does generate a lot of bowls and saucepans.

Do you make souffles? If not, do you think you might try after my urging you to?