Easy Chocolate Souffle

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I just love this easy chocolate souffle recipe. There is nothing quite like this incredibly impressive classic French dessert.

For those of you who may not be familiar with the chocolate souffle, it is a French dessert that is somewhere in between a chocolate cake and a chocolate mousse. So if you love both of those desserts you will be in heaven taking a bite out of this easy chocolate souffle.

Time to impress your family, friends, or that special someone with your baking skills. Don’t be intimidated by this dessert. It is very simple to make, if I can do it, you can do it. Let’s get baking!

Step 1: Gather the ingredients

In order to make this homemade chocolate souffle, you need just a handful of easy to find ingredients:

• Chocolate – Room temperature works the best. I typically use a dark chocolate, but semi-sweet, and milk chocolate will work as well. Use chocolate bars or chocolate chips, it is up to you.
• Butter – Use unsalted or salted butter.
• Flour – All purpose/plain flour.
• Milk – Make sure the milk is cold. I generally use whole milk, but 2%, or 1% will work as well.
• Salt
• Egg yolk – Room temperature.
• Egg whites – Room temperature.
• Cream of tartar – This stabilizes the egg whites. Vinegar or lemon juice may be used as well.
• White granulated sugar
• Powdered sugar for topping or you can used cocoa powder
• Butter and sugar for the ramekins

Tools

• 2 6-oz ramekins
• Bowls
• Skillet
• Whisk
• Fork
• Spatula
• Basting brush
• Hand or stand mixer
• Sheet pan
• Parchment paper or silicone baking mat
• Basting brush

Step 2: How to make chocolate souffle from scratch

Preheat the oven to 375 F/190 C.

Time to prepare the ramekins. I always prepare 2 of my 6oz ramekins and 1 of my 4oz ramekins. If I wind up with any leftover batter, I put it in the smaller ramekin and create a mini chocolate souffle.

Take a basting brush and dip it in softened or slightly melted butter. Brush the whole inside of the ramekin.

TIP: Make vertical brush strokes up the sides of the ramekins. This helps the souffle rise better.

Then add in a few tablespoons of white granulated sugar, tilt and turn the ramekin to make sure the whole inside is covered, then pour the sugar into the next ramekin and repeat until you are done.

The butter and sugar help allow the chocolate souffle to glide up the sides of the ramekin when baking. No one wants their souffle to stick to the sides of the ramekin and not rise.

Place the prepped ramekins on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper or a silicone mat. Technically you can just place them right on the pan itself, but I always add that little bit of a buffer between the ramekins and the pan.

Now take room temperature chocolate and chop it up into little chunks. You can also use chocolate chips if you like. I typically use nice dark chocolate like the “Special Dark” Hershey’s brand, or a nice 70% Lindt bar, or something. But you can pretty much use whatever chocolate you like.

TIP: The room temperature chocolate will melt easier once the hot roux is added to it.

Place the chopped chocolate or chocolate chips in a medium bowl and set aside for now.

Step 3: Make the roux

Time to make a roux. No, we aren’t making gravy…haha. Roux’s are commonly used in sauces and other things, like this chocolate souffle.

Add the one tablespoon of butter to a small skillet. Set the heat to medium and allow the butter to melt completely.

Then add in the flour a little bit at a time while whisking at the same time until the flour is incorporated. Then cook the mixture while whisking for about 1 minute or so. A roux is generally made with a 1 to 1 ratio of flour to fat like butter or oil/bacon grease.

Turn the heat down to low, and pour in the cold milk, and whisk. Cold milk helps prevent lumps. Keep whisking until the mixture thickens and becomes nice and silky smooth, it will take 3 to 4 minutes or so.

Pour the hot roux into the bowl of chopped room temp chocolate and allow it to sit for a minute or so. The heat from the roux will melt the chocolate.

Add a pinch of salt and then stir until the roux is incorporated and the chocolate is melted.

Stir in that egg yolk and the chocolate base for the souffle is complete. Set the bowl aside for a few minutes.

NOTE: A chocolate souffle is made up of two parts, the chocolate base and the meringue, which is made from egg whites.

Step 4: Make the meringue for the chocolate souffle

Time to make the meringue and beat the egg whites. Add the two room-temperature egg whites to a large bowl and then mix until frothy. Slowly beat in the cream of tartar a little bit at a time until incorporated. This helps stabilize the egg whites.

NOTE: The room temperature egg whites beat easier than cold egg whites. If you don’t have cream of tartar use lemon juice or white vinegar.

Once the cream of tartar is incorporated, mix in the two tablespoons of white granulated sugar, gradually while beating. Continue mixing until you have just shy of stiff peaks. When you pull up the beaters, the remaining peaks should ever so slightly curl over. It is pretty easy to tell when it is at this stage.

Now take a third to a little less than half of the meringue and stir it in with the chocolate souffle chocolate base.

After that, pour the chocolate base into the large bowl with the rest of the meringue. This time, fold in the egg whites. Go underneath with the spatula and then up and over, etc. Don’t stir, that will ruin all the air you put into the meringue and the chocolate souffle won’t rise properly. Keep folding until there are no white streaks of egg white.

The chocolate souffle batter is done and ready to be baked. Pretty easy right?

Step 5: Bake the easy homemade chocolate souffle

Pour the souffle batter into the ramekins all the way to the top. You may or may not need an extra small ramekin for any leftovers.

Then pinch the very top of the ramekin with your index finger and thumb and go around the whole top. Creating a small little groove all the way around. This helps the souffle to rise by clearing away any little obstructions and helps to keep it level and not lopsided.

Bake in the oven, middle rack position for 13 to 15 minutes. Do NOT open the oven until 13 minutes has passed. And do NOT poke it in the middle with a toothpick to check if it is done.

In my oven 14 minutes to 14 and a half is perfect. There should be a slight jiggle to the top when it is done.

Remove the chocolate souffle from the oven. Again pretty easy right? You can definitely make this!

Dust the tops with powdered sugar or cocoa powder and serve right away. If you wait too long they will start to collapse.

The consistency will be like a very light cake on the outside edges and top and a warm chocolate mousse on the inside, so delicious! Enjoy. 🙂

Now time for you to impress your family, friends, or special someone with this amazing homemade chocolate souffle. If I can do it, you can do it!

How long will a chocolate souffle last?

They really should be eaten right away, because they collapse really quickly. However, you can refrigerate any leftovers for a few days. But a chocolate souffle is meant to be eaten and enjoyed right away.

Why did my chocolate souffle collapse and not rise properly?

This can happen for a few reasons. Maybe you didn’t generously butter and sugar those ramekins. Or maybe your oven wasn’t set to the correct temperature. Or maybe you were tempted and opened the oven too early.

Here are a few other recipes you may like:

French Toast Bites

Meringue Cookies

Homemade Almond Roca

Classic French Macarons

Oreo Balls

Do you like this recipe? Share and Pin it! Please give it a rating and comment down below, I really appreciate it. If you make it tag me on Instagram @inthekitchenwithmatt. Also, sign up for the newsletter so you won’t miss out on any of my new posts and recipes.