The texture of a great soufflé is delightful. So light and airy and beautiful. Soufflés can be made in a variety of flavors, both sweet and savory, and get their uniquely light texture from whipped egg whites that maintain air within the batter that rises during baking. You can start your day with a breakfast soufflé, enjoy an elegant cheese soufflé for lunch or finish your day in a beautiful way with this heavenly lemon soufflé.
Soufflés have a reputation of being difficult to bake. You often read recipes that warn you that cracking the oven door during baking can completely ruin all of your hard work or the tiniest amount of grease in your egg white bowl will make success impossible. Don’t stress about it! I think stress is way more detrimental to successful cooking than making a few mistakes here and there. Its all apart of the learning process and if you aren’t enjoying yourself, you probably won’t want to do it again and then no one is having soufflés and that would be a bad thing. So take a deep breath and lets make a lemon soufflé…
Start by gathering your ingredients and doing a little prep work before everything starts moving at full speed. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and separate 4 eggs. Place the 4 yolks in a medium mixing bowl and the 4 whites in a clean glass bowl large enough to whip them in. Divide your butter into 2 tablespoon portions and pick out your soufflé dishes. This recipe will make one large soufflé or about four smaller ones. I actually used two standard soufflé cups and two heart shaped soufflé dishes.
You will also need to zest a few lemons, enough to have about one tablespoon of zest. I love lemons and really wanted to be sure that the lemon flavor stands out in this soufflé, so zest those lemons! I used two really fresh lemons and one lemon that was a few days old. I find that the older lemons zest has a slightly stronger flavor than the super fresh ones, so I did a bit of both, but any lemon will do. Be sure to only zest the yellow and not to dig too deeply into the white.
Next, prepare your soufflé dish or dishes by greasing their interior with room temperature butter and dusting with granulated sugar. We typically grease baking vessels so they will release whatever we just baked in them, but with a soufflé, you need the sides to be greased and dusted so that as the batter begins to rise, it is not slowed down at all by any sticking to the dish. This is really an important step, so take your time and be sure that everything is well greased and covered with sugar.
In a medium mixing bowl, combine 4 egg yolks, 1/3 cup of granulated sugar, 1/3 cup of all-purpose flour, 1/3 cup of milk and a tablespoon of lemon zest. Whisk everything together until you have a nice smooth batter. In a small saucepan, add the remaining milk (1 cup) and place it over medium heat. As soon as it begins to steam and simmer, remove it from the heat and slowly add it to the egg yolk batter, while whisking constantly. Once the hot milk and batter are fully combined, transfer it back into the saucepan.
Over medium heat, whisk the batter until it begins to thicken and then set it aside to cool for 10 minutes.
While the batter is cooling, begin whipping the egg whites with an electric hand mixer or in a stand mixer and once they are foamy, add 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar and continue whipping until stiff peaks have formed.
Once the batter has cooled for about 10 minutes, whisk in 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract and a few drops of lemon extract and transfer the batter into a large glass bowl. Add about 1/4 of the whipped egg whites into the batter and gently fold to begin combining them. Continue adding the egg whites until everything has been fully combined and is takes on a pale yellow color. You do not want to over mix this batter, so as soon as you can no longer see the white color of the egg whites in the batter, you are ready.
The batter should be really light and fluffy and very fragrant. If it looks like this, you are ready to transfer the batter into your soufflé dishes. Place the dishes onto a baking sheet and fill them with batter to the top. Using the back of a knife, smooth out the tops and clean up any excess from around the edges. Bake at 350 degrees for about 28 minutes. Keep an eye on your oven temp and don’t let it rise past 350 degrees. Once the soufflés have risen and their tops are slightly golden, you are ready to celebrate your new found skill of nailing a lemon soufflé…
Lemon Soufflé
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons butter, room temperature
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1 1/3 cups whole milk
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon zest
- 1/3 cup all purpose flour
- 4 large eggs, divided
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- a few drops of lemon zest
- confectioners sugar (garnish)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Using 2 tablespoons of room temperature butter, grease 1 large soufflé dish or 4 smaller soufflé dishes and then dust 1/4 cup of granulated sugar in the dish(es), ensuring that all interior surfaces of the dish(es) have been buttered and covered in sugar and then set the prepared dishes aside
- In a small saucepan, bring 1 cup of whole milk just to a simmer and then remove the pan from the heat
- In a medium mixing bowl, combine 1/3 cup of granulated sugar, 1/3 cup of all-purpose flour, 1/3 cup of whole milk, 4 egg yolks and 1 table spoon of lemon zest into a smooth batter
- Slowly add a bit of the hot milk into the batter while whisking constantly. Continue to add a bit more at a time until all of the hot milk has been combined with the batter and everything is fully incorporated
- Transfer the batter back into the saucepan and return it to medium heat. Whisk constantly until the batter thickens (about 60-90 seconds)
- Remove the batter from the heat and add 2 tablespoons of room temperature butter. Whisk until the butter has melted and combined with the batter. Set the batter aside to cool for 10 minutes
- In a medium bowl, beat 4 egg whites until foamy. Add 2 tablespoons of sugar and continue beating the egg whites until stiff, shiny peaks form
- Once the batter has cooled for 10 minutes, add 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract and several drops of lemon extract and whisk to combine
- Add 1/4 of the whipped egg whites to the batter and gently fold to combine. Continue adding egg whites until everything is combined and smooth. Be careful not to overmix
- Transfer batter into soufflé dish(es) filling it to the top
- Smooth the tops with the back of a knife
- Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 28 minutes. The soufflé should rise tall and the top should be crusted and slightly golden. Avoid opening the oven door until the soufflé is ready to be removed from the oven
- Dust with confectioners sugar and serve immediately
