Dark Chocolate Souffle Derivative

I didn't have any luck recently trying to make a cheese cake. It would have been a stunner if only it did not collapse when I tried to remove it from the pan. It never set and if you closed your eyes and ate it, you would not know any better. I also had some issues making my first souffle. I didn't read the recipe properly and did a variation which I call the souffle derivative and I rather liked the velvety texture it create. I am just not so keen the dark chocolate, its a bit to rich for me.  

I did not take any photos until the completed product. Just wanted to get it all done quickly rather than posing for photos. I will resume taking photos soonish of the process. 

The Ingredients

Soften butter for greasing the ramekins

90 grams of dark chocolate

1/2 tablespoon of caster sugar plus some for coating of ramekins

3 egg whites

2 egg yokes

75 ml of thicken cream

1 tablespoon brandy

Icing sugar for dusting

The Method

Preheat your oven to 220 degrees Celsius. Now my oven started to smoke here and even set off the smoke alarm when I opened it. My oven has never been to that temperature since I moved in. When I made an actual souffle I preheated the oven a bit later on.

Grease the ramekins with butter and then sprinkle caster sugar. Refrigerate until you place the completed mixture into the ramekins.

Place the dark chocolate and cream into a bowl sitting over warm water in a saucepan to melt the chocolate. Mix until the chocolate melts and it is all smooth. Remove the bowl from the heat and mix in the egg yokes and the brandy.

Using an electric mixture, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form, which is when you can hold the bowl upside down over your head and it will not fall on you. Now add the caster sugar and whisk it until its glossy. WAIT!!!! This is what I should have done but something got all mixed up in my blonde head (no I am a brunette), well it was a blonde moment. I am sure we all do have these moments, including guys. What I actually did was add the egg whites to the chocolate, cream brandy mixture and started whisking it with an electric mixture. It was then, when I reread the recipe that I saw that something was amiss. Where were my fluffy egg whites. Nonexistent!! They were all combined into the chocolate. What to do? I asked myself. Abandon it? Nahhhhh. I whisk the mixture a bit more, took out the two ramekins from the fridge, poured my derivative mixture into them and placed them in my hot smokey oven to bake for about 10 minutes.When done dust with some icing sugar.

Here is how they looked like when they came out. I really like the texture of it. Different from a souffle and different from a cake. If anyone knows what this is actually called I would love to know. The texture was thick and velvety. As you glided the spoon into it and through it, it broke away. I may make this again, but maybe a white chocolate one. Dark chocolate is not my favorite but otherwise this is and was my souffle derivative. 

Chrusty (Faworki)

I have a Polish background. My mother hailed from Poland and my father's family hailed from Poland, though his family migrated to another European country before his birth. I was born in Australia and I always remember my mother making a Polish sweet. We made it for family gatherings, made it for multicultural day at school. Then I made it for my children's multicultural day at school and I made it for this year's harmony day at work. This sweet is called Chrusty or Faworki.

I got a recipe for it from my mother's Polish cook book but I somehow misplaced it, which is not unusual for me. I even at times have misplaced my car keys to find I was holding them in my hand. I got all flustered for absolutely no reason. So I looked for another recipe on English and Polish websites and settled on the following recipe. My ability to read Polish is somewhat limited and wondering how much is a glass of flour in a Polish recipe, left me taking hold of a English recipe. They do their measurements a in glasses so it left me wondering how big is a glass of flour? Does it mean a cup?

The ingredients

250 grams of flour

5 egg yokes

2 tablespoons of sour cream

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon on vinegar

Icing sugar for dusting

The method

Mix the flour, egg yokes, sour cream, sugar and vinegar in a bowl. Knead it into a dough and then, with a rolling pin, roll it out flat, a few millimeters thin.

 Using a knife make lines in the dough, as shown in the below photo.

In each cut out strip, cut it into roughly 10 centimeter length and cut a three centimeter slit in each piece that will become the Chrusty. See the photo below for guidance.

Take one end of the chrust and pull it through the slit in the middle until you get it looking as follows.

Heat up some oil for a shallow frying. Add spoon of vodka in the oil to prevent it from foaming. Yes the Polish solve everything with a vodka or two. When the oil is hot enough fry the chrusty until golden and then remove from the heat and when all completed, dust them over with some icing sugar on both sides. There has been hardly a person who could resist Chrusty. Faworki is another term they are known by but I have always known them as Chrusty. Pronounced with a H sound and not a CH.