Sasha's Kitchen: Valentine's Day Dessert: Red Raspberry Souffle

After making my Chocolate Souffle with Raspberry Chambord Cream Sauce over the weekend, I was inspired to make another souffle using raspberries.  Raspberries have long been one of my favorite fruits since the days when I was growing up in Upstate New York and would go to a local orchard and family run fruit farm, Hurd Orchards to pick our own berries.  Fresh berries in the summer (and even the winter too) are one of my favorite foods.

Even though raspberries are far from being in season right now, I thought that the raspberry - in all its tartness - would make the perfect light and airy souffle that wasn't overpoweringly sweet.  I was right - the final result was a lovely, light souffle in the most beautiful shade of pink imaginable.  It tasted like a adoring raspberry kiss.  

The souffle was surprisingly simple to make, once you get the hang of making and baking a souffle down.  You could also try this recipe with strawberries, but I think that would not turn out as well because it would be too sweet.  Another option, which I did not try this time, would be to add half a teaspoon of lemon juice to the recipe, because the tartness of lemon goes so well with raspberries.  Here's what you will need to make 3 souffles.  You can obviously double the recipe if you would like to make more.  It's like indulging in a kiss of pure airy raspberry goodness.

1/2 pint of raspberries

2/3 cup of sugar

2 egg yolks

3 egg whites

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Preheat the oven to 350 before you begin.  Spray three ramekins with PAM and sprinkle them with sugar,  You will need to have the oven preheated and ready to go by the time you are ready to put the souffles in or they will not rise properly.  Puree the raspberries in a Cuisinart or other food processor and mix with the sugar in a saucepan.  Heat for a few minutes over medium high until the mixture thickens and the sugar dissolves.  If you like, you can then add 1/2 a teaspoon of lemon juice.  Remove from the heat, mix in the egg yolks, and strain to get rid of as many of the seeds as possible.

Next, beat the egg yolks and cream of tartar until it forms stiff peaks, by beating on high with your stand mixer.  You can follow my instructions from the Dark Chocolate Raspberry Souffle here.  Gently fold in the egg whites.  Bake the souffles at 350 for about 20 minutes.  Put on your oven light to watch the souffles rise, but do not open the oven until you are ready to take them out, or they will collapse.

My husband, a big fan of the dark chocolate souffle, wasn't so sure about this one before I made it.  I had to do a bit of convincing.  However, he ate it in about 20 seconds and devoured every last bite!  I recommend serving the souffle with a side of Eric's homemade Vanilla Ice Cream.