Individual Chocolate Souffle's

Last night we celebrated my dad's birthday. His actual birthday was three weeks ago but nobody in my family has been home to celebrate, so it got postponed.

I planned the entire thing for him, even though it was just a little family celebration, I took it as if I was serving the Queen of England (being the drama queen that I am).

Now my father is a former Marine. He was in the Marine Corpse for 23 years. So picture a pretty buff, muscular guy that likes very manly things being the man that he is, and naturally I have to make the most petite dessert that I can think of for his birthday.

I have never made a chocolate souffle before, nor have I ever made any other kind of souffle before, but it looked fairly simple just reading the recipe.

I dove right in with the confidence of a gold medal olympian. "I've got this!" I told myself "there's no way I can screw this up!" right? Wrong. Turns out I had misread the instructions and did things in reverse order causing my chocolate to clump up and burn. Luckily I had anticipated such things and purchased an extra box of chocolate.

So slightly discouraged and a little less confident I threw out my gross chocolate and started over. Realizing the mistake I had made, I did things the right way this time and lucky for me it worked!

Now I know souffles are supposed to rise but my ramekins were a little too big for the amount of souffle I put in them, so oh well live and learn. I may have screwed some things up in the process but the end product was oh so delicious I can't even tell you! Well worth the blows to my ego, because anything chocolate is delicious. Especially when you eat it with a little whip cream!

Recipe: Prep Time: 15 minutes Cook Time: 15 minutes Total Time: 30 minutes Serves: 6

Ingredients: 

• 1/3 cup granulated sugar, plus 2 tablespoons for sprinkling
• 5 ounces bittersweet chocolate (I used the Bakers chocolate kind)
• 3 large egg yolks, room temperature
• 6 large egg whites, room temperature
• 1/16 teaspoon salt
• Butter

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Butter 6 individual soufflé ramekins and sprinkle with sugar; set aside.

In a bowl, beat egg whites with salt on medium high speed until they hold soft glossy peaks. Continue beating egg whites on high speed, gradually adding the remaining 1/3 cup sugar, until the egg whites hold stiff glossy peaks.

Meanwhile melt chocolate pieces in a metal bowl over barely simmering water, constantly stirring. (Even a small amount of overheated chocolate will ruin an entire recipe.) Once the chocolate is melted, remove the bowl from heat and stir in the egg yolks.

Immediately after stirring in the egg yolks, Gently stir 1/3 of the eggs whites into the chocolate mixture, then carefully fold in the remaining egg whites. The chocolate mixture should be light and bubbly, and even colored, without egg white streaks.

Spoon your soufflé mixture into the prepared ramekins and allow to rest for up to 30 minutes or bake right away for 12 – 15 minutes (slightly longer at high altitudes) until risen with a crusty exterior. Serve with a dusting of cocoa or powdered sugar if desired.