Darcy's great (partially) British baking show

Darcy Mullane '24

Editor in Chief of Design

I hope these absolutely wonderful and helpful tips serve you right throughout the school year, especially for you freshmen (you have to learn good habits early). Make sure to take these pieces of advice and anecdotes very seriously, as no one else will be this brutally honest with you. Happy schooling!

To make souffle, you get egg whites mixed with sugar to stiff peaks, make custard (or use canned custard) mixed with flavorings and then fold the custard and egg whites together. The difficult part is the baking. One must keep a close eye on them because, if overcooked, the magic of the souffle will be gone and the baker will be left with a flat mix of egg whites and custard.

Here is my experience baking the souffles, which actually turned out well and were rather impressive:

I went in with mixed feelings and began by putting on my very professional “Harry Potter” apron. My first step was making custard from a powder which I then let cool completely. After the custard cooled, I was onto the important bit which was getting the eggs to stiff peaks.

At home baker takes on the notoriously hard souffle

With the help of my sous chef, AKA my dad Michael, I was able to multitask. He kept an eye on the eggs while I mixed sugar and cornstarch with the custard. After whisking together the custard, I kept an eye on the eggs because if I had whisked them for too long, they would go back to liquid and ruin everything. I then folded the eggs in with the custard mixture and quickly put the mixture in four separate ramekins (circular ceramic containers).

I hurried off to the preheated oven, put them in and anxiously waited. I ended up having them in the oven for around 23 minutes, and while they baked, I fearfully paced around the kitchen.

They came out perfectly risen and golden brown, so I excitedly clapped and called over my family to eat it, which they happily did.

I was very troubled as I made four mandarin souffles because of the thought that they were one of the most difficult things to bake, and while it did prove to be difficult, I learned a lot. Here are some of my tips:

Put in strong flavoring because egg is a very prominent ingredient, so bakers do not want to make a perfectly risen souffle and have it taste solely of egg. Souffles can be made with all sorts of flavorings such as chocolate, fruit and vanilla. When I did my mandarin souffle, I wished I had put more mandarin zest and mandarins at the bottom, so keep in mind - when flavoring souffles with fruit - to add a little more flavoring than you think you’ll need.
Take folding in the egg whites seriously. It is one of the KEY steps to making souffles. If the egg whites are just whisked in, it will go flat and not have the volume or the air it needs to rise.
Keep a close eye on it while it bakes. The recipe may say to bake for 15 minutes, but if it’s not golden on top or looks like it has not reached its highest potential, you may need to leave it in longer.

Baking souffle is a challenge and needs a dedicated worker, but it is also very rewarding, so I say, “Souffle you stay, negativity sashay-away.”

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