The secret to every successful soufflé lies in capturing the hot air. In French souffle (no accent) means “puff, breath, air” and soufflé (with accent) means “casserole”. Thus two basic principles of the soufflé have already been mentioned: It’s baked in the oven and is fluffy warm. It gets its firmness from the carefully worked in egg whites whose proteins congeal, or solidify, at 60° C.

The most important components are always thick béchamel sauce, milk combined with Beurre manière or roux with milk, including egg yolks, beaten egg whites and of course flavourings. These can be salty or savoury ingredients such as cheese, quark, herbs, vegetables, mushrooms, meat, ham, poultry, fish, shellfish or crustaceans. But sweet flavours can also be perfectly used in a soufflé: fruit containing pectin (such as currants, gooseberries, quinces, apples and pears), spirits and liqueurs, pastry, chocolate, marzipan, coffee, cocoa and nuts.

You should generally heed the following when making a soufflé:
The eggs must be fresh and at room temperature. The container in which the egg whites are beaten may have no traces of fat. A pinch of salt increases the firmness of the egg whites beaten until firm. Fold in beaten egg whites one spoonful at a time. Always put only three-quarters of the creamy mixture into a well greased, heat-resistant mould. Always preheat oven to the temperature specified. Keep the oven door closed while baking. Shortly before the end of the baking time open the door briefly and tap on the mould. If the surface wiggles, bake everything a few minutes longer. Only when the surface hardly moves any more is the soufflé finished and, covered with a preheated serviette, served immediately.

The following soufflé recipe is available in our database:

Vanilla soufflé