Soufflés

In the most traditional and strict sense, a soufflé is a hot dessert in which a flavored base (crème anglaise, fruit purée, chocolate, or a combination) is combined with a French meringue à la minute, portioned into a ramekin, and then baked undisturbed until it rises well above the rim of the ramekin. Some chefs use a pâte à choux base or pastry cream base, which technically is cheating, since a soufflé should contain no starch (flour or cornstarch) to aid in its structure development in the oven. It must be served within a few minutes of extracting it from the oven, lest it lose its volume. This term is now very loosely used for a variety of desserts that are not even hot; in fact, they are frozen. Foams utilized in frozen soufflés can vary between pastry chefs. The only reasons they are referred to as “soufflés” are that they resemble traditional hot soufflés and they generally contain an egg white foam.