Flourless dark chocolate soufflés with Earl Grey cream

This recipe is my take on Brooklyn’s Mast Brothers’ flourless chocolate cake, from their new Mast Brothers Chocolate cookbook, which, by the way, is amazeballs. I added a few extra goodies, like Earl Grey tea, cream and a touch of lemon to complement this rich piece of heaven.

• makes

  8

• prep

  25 minutes

• cook

  25 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 450 g dark chocolate, chopped
• 125 g unsalted butter
• 8 eggs
• 150 g (⅔ cup) caster sugar
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• ½ cup thickened (whipping) cream
• 2 Earl Grey tea bags (or 1 tbsp loose-leaf tea)
• 1 small strip lemon rind
• icing sugar, to dust

Cooling time 10 minutes

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Butter 8 ramekins.

Melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler – make sure the bowl doesn’t touch the water. Remove from heat and cool.

Separate the eggs and put the egg whites in a large bowl and the yolks in smaller one. Add ⅓ cup sugar and vanilla to the yolks and beat with an electric mixer until nice and fluffy (they’ll get pale like your thighs after winter). Add the yolk mixture to the chocolate mixture – fold them in.

Add 2 tablespoons sugar to the egg whites and whisk until they form soft peaks. Carefully fold the whisked egg whites into the chocolate mix. Pour the batter into the ramekins and bake for 25 minutes or until risen.

While your soufflés are baking, make the Earl Grey cream. Heat up the cream, Earl Grey tea, lemon peel and remaining 2 tbsp sugar over medium-low heat until the cream starts to simmer. Remove from the heat and let it steep for about 10 minutes, then let it cool down in the fridge. Once it’s cold, remove all the stuff and give it a quick whisk (no need to go all the way).

Once your soufflés are ready, take them out of the oven and pour the Earl Grey cream right in the centre where the soufflés collapse, sprinkle over some icing sugar and bada-bing, you are done.

You can serve them piping hot or at room temperature.

Recipe from Artful Desperado by Gabriel Cabrera, with photographs by Gabriel Cabrera.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.