When I’m at home visiting my parent’s house, my mom and I like to try out new recipes and play around with menu ideas for dinner. Even though we love to try new ideas, there are a few meals every year where the menu remains the same. One of them is Christmas dinner.
For Christmas dinner we do what we call “The Italian Feast.” When my brothers and I were younger and still all living at home, it was a meal that would be made every couple months or so for a nice family dinner. The past few years, Christmas is the only time this menu roles around. The menu includes: Chicken Parmesan, Garlic and Oil Pasta, Steamed Broccoli, Caesar Salad, and Garlic Bread. The “piece de resistance” (read that with a french accent), however, is the special Christmas day Chocolate Soufflé. That’s how we roll in our house hold. It gets pretty fancy smancy around here on December 25th.
Nothing says Christmas like a perfectly timed delicacy served piping hot with a dab of cold ice cream or whipped cream. You should give it a try.
Chocolate Soufflé
An old recipe taken from the New York Times article about Cleo’s La Cuisine Catering, Published February 11, 1981
Ingredients
- 2 cups milk
- 6 eggs, separated, plus 2 eggs whites
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1 cup semisweet chocolate bits (my mom uses standard chocolate chips)
Method
- Scald milk in double boiler.
- Use an electric mixer to beat the six egg yolks with the sugar for about 4 minutes, until it forms a “ribbon.” Add the flour gradually and continue to beat until smooth.
- Transfer the egg mixture to a double boiler and gradually add in the scalded milk. Beat vigorously making sure to temper the eggs and not let them get cooked. Beat for about five minutes.
- Add chocolate to the mixture and stir until melted. Remove from the heat and let it cool.
- Beat all eight egg whites wand a pinch of salt until stiff but not dry.
- Fold the egg whites into cooled chocolate mixture.
- Preheat the oven to 350.
- Butter a two quart soulfe dish and sprinkle with a little sugar. Fill the soufle dish with the batter and bake 80-90 minutes until there is about a two inch cap above the rim of the dish.
- Enjoy it right out of the oven with colder accompaniment, but wait a sec so you don’t burn your mouth!
Sadie Dishes 