Back with a Daring Cheese Souffle

I was a little sad to miss out on last months Daring Cook's and Baker's challenge...but things were really just too hectic to do them.  But I am back at it with this month's daring cooks Challenge.  There is lots on the go here as always seems to be the case....it's actually a very busy day of baking here as I will post about later.  But for now...here is the November Cook's Challenge.

Dave and Linda from Monkeyshines in the Kitchen chose Soufflés as our November 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge! Dave and Linda provided two of their own delicious recipes plus a sinfully decadent chocolate soufflé recipe adapted from Gordon Ramsay’s recipe found at the BBC Good Food website.

Now I was pretty excited to learn that the November Challenge was to make a souffle.  This is my first and hopefully not my last attempt at a souffle.  It was the perfect accompaniment for a lunch with the early winter weather we have been having. I  wavered back and forth on what kind of souffle to make....and in the end decided to make a basic cheese souffle to start out with.  There seems to be no end of sweet baking going on here so a savoury concoction was most definitely in order.  We had the souffle for lunch this afternoon with a nice bowl of tomato soup.  I chose to try a recipe off the internet from Alton Brown.

Cheese Souffle
2 Tbsp parmesan cheese
1 1/2 oz or 3 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp flour
1 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
pinch of cayenne pepper
1 1/3 cup hot milk
4 egg yolks
6 oz sharp cheddar cheese
5 egg whites (room temperature)
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
Grease an 8 inch souffle pan with softened butter and coat with grated parmesan cheese, by dumping the cheese in to the greased pan and turning the pan.  Preheat oven to 375F (you will be using only the very lowest rack in the oven).Heat butter and add flour, dry mustard, garlic powder, salt and cayenne pepper to make a roux.  Cook 2 minutes.  Whisk in hot milk and bring to bubble for two minutes.  Remove from heat.  In a small bowl, lightly beat the egg yolks and temper them by beating in a few tbsp of hot roux into them.  Pour egg yolk mixture into the roux and whisk constantly.  Add grated cheddar and whisk to incorporate.  In a large bowl whip egg whites and cream of tartar to firm peaks.  Add 1/4 of the egg whites to the roux base and fold in well.  Add the remaining egg whites in thirds, folding gently.  Fill pan to within 1/2 inch of top making sure edges are clean and buttered.  bake 35 minutes until cake tester poked into the center comes out clean.