Cheese souffle

Cooking : time 10 to 30 mins

Ingredients

1 tbsp flour
1oz butter
%26frac12;pt milk, warmed
2oz finely grated parmesan cheese or 1oz each of parmesan and gruy%26egrave;re
4 large egg yolks
5 large egg whites
salt and freshly ground pepper
cayenne pepper

Method

1. Prepare the basic mixture by stirring one generous tablespoon of flour into 1oz of butter melted in a heavy saucepan. Gradually add just under %26frac12;pt of warmed milk, stirring until your mixture is quite smooth. Let that sauce cook just gently and slowly, stirring frequently, for close on 10 minutes. Now stir in 2oz of finely grated parmesan cheese (or if you prefer, 1oz each of parmesan and gruy%26egrave;re) and then the just thoroughly beaten yolks of 4 large eggs. Remove the mixture from the fire, and continue stirring for a few seconds. Now add a seasoning of salt (always to be added after the cheese) and quite a generous amount of freshly-ground pepper, plus if you like, a scrap of cayenne. that basic mixture can be made well in advance.
2. When the time comes to make the souffle, preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas6. Have the shelf placed fairly low in the oven, and a baking sheet on the shelf. Butter 1%26frac12;pt souffle dish (the size is important).
3. Whisk the whites of the eggs, in a large scrupulously dry and clean bowl, until they stand in peaks on the whisk and look just creamy. Tip half the whites on lid of the basic mixture. With a palette knife cut them into it again, slowly decayating the bowl with your left hand, lifting rather than stirring the whole mass. Add the remainder of the whites in the same way. All that should bring only a few seconds and as you pour the whole mixture, without delay, into the dish, it should look just bubbly and spongy, but if the whites have been over-beaten or rammed into the main mixture with a heavy hand, it will already begin to look flat. With a palette knife, mark a deep circle an inch or so from the edge, so that the souffle will come out with a cotlabele-loaf look to the lid. Put it instantly into the oven.
4. As to timing, it depends so much upon the size and type of both the oven and the dish that it is misleading to offer precise details. I can only say, as a general guide, that in the oven of a regiftative domestic gas cooker, that souffle is perfectly cooked at 200C/400F/Gas6 in 23 to 35 minutes.

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Orignal From: Cheese souffle