# Why is My Sweet Souffle Hollow?



## cvanavi (Sep 24, 2009)

I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, but it takes my souffle forever to bake 40 min at 350 for a small ramekin. The souffle also seems to push itself out of the bowl leaving me with a hollow centered souffle - there's a top hat but the center is completely hollow. Its as if the souffle has risen out of the bowl and is hanging on the rim of the ramekin.

JIC, here's my mixture: 
4 tablespoon butter+ 1/3 cup AP flour+ 1/8 teaspoon salt + 1 1/2 cup milk + 60 mL sugar + 4 egg yolks + 1/3 cup lychee puree*

6 egg whites + 40 mL sugar 

* for the puree, i'm not sure if I'm doing it correctly, but I puree canned lychee then reduce the puree in a sauce pan. I strain the reduced mixture and use the juice for the souffle. I throw away the pulp. 

What am I doing incorrectly?


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## petalsandcoco (Aug 25, 2009)

Can you please give a step by step description as to how you make your souffle. It is very vague. Do you separate your eggs in advance and leave them at room temperature ? Are your egg whites beaten very stiff ? Is your puree stiff enough to hold the souffle ?
To trouble shoot you need to give step by step procedure. There are many reasons why a souffle will not work.

Petals


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## boar_d_laze (Feb 13, 2008)

Two possibilities leap to mind.

You're not folding the egg whites into the base properly. After you've whipped the whites to soft peaks, add about a third to the base and mix them in -- not vigorously, but not folding them either. That will lighten the base. Then fold in the remaining egg whites, with the usual folding technique, until the whites are almost completely incorporated. That is, you want a just a few very thin streaks of white in the base. If you totally incorporate, you'll knock too much air out.

Your oven is too slow, and you're overcooking by cooking too long. At a guess this is more likely. 375F is a sort of dead minimum for souffle baking; I prefer 400F. A properly cooked souffle is something like a properly cooked omelette. In physics terms, at its center, the "matter phase" should be indeterminate. Is it liquid? Is it solid? Both and neither. In cooking terms, you want it very slightly undercooked in the center.

At a guess, yours is drying out, and in the course of completely drying the top dries faster, and separates from the center when it's no longer wet enough to hold it.

A common trick is to serve a sauce with the souffle (often creme anglaise). At service, the souffle is broken with a spoon and enough sauce poured in so that it just begins to run out of the souffle. This covers a multitude of sins. 

On the whole, your lychee souffle sounds lovely. I may steal it.

BDL


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## ed buchanan (May 29, 2006)

BDL is right on.
Temperature not hot enough and you are putting in a cold souffle mix, therefore over baking occurs, The souffle is SUPPOSED to rise out of ramekin.


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## petalsandcoco (Aug 25, 2009)

Yes, very true.

I usually start off at 425 then immediately reduce to 375 for 30 minutes.

I would be curious to know if BDL's tips solved your problem. An interesting dish I might add.

Love Souffle......................


Petals


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