Fine Food Aboard French Hotel Barge Finesse
We received an email with a recipe from Mike Crowson, the chef aboard "Finesse", that we'd like to share with you.
On the Finesse I do a cooking demonstration every week, which is how to make a twice baked cheese soufflé, but we don't demonstrate a dessert soufflé. As promised to a number of guests, here we will work through the chocolate soufflé served throughout 2018.
Here we have served the soufflé with a passion fruit sorbet to cut the richness of the chocolate.
This soufflé is very easy to make if you have a basic knowledge of desserts, it is also very stable. The base is a creme patisserie which is basically a very thick custard.
For our North American guests, note that I use cornflour. in this recipe. It is very important you do not confuse this with cornstarch which is used a lot in the USA but is not the same ingredient and does not react the same. Cornstarch, as its name suggests, is made from corn, but cornflour is made from wheat therefore they don't react exactly the same. In a savoury recipe this probably won't make too much difference but working with pastry you have to be very precise.
Chocolate soufflé
INGREDIENTS
- 6 egg yolks
- 150g caster sugar
- 40g plain flour
- 35g cornflour
- 50g cocoa powder
- 500ml whole milk
- 6 egg whites
- 120g caster sugar
METHOD
- With room-temperature butter, butter and sugar 6 ramekins. Place them in freezer until needed.
- Preheat oven to 185°C / 365°F / Gas mark 4.
- Place egg yolks and 150g sugar into a pan and make into a paste.
- Then add flour and cornflour, mix to combine.
- Add a small amount of warmed milk place over a medium heat and add the milk slowly while mixing.
- When all the milk has been added, cook over medium heat stirring all the time.
- When the mixture is hot, add the cocoa powder and continue cooking the custard mix, watching it doesn't stick on the bottom of the pan, until you have a smooth thick creme patisserie.
- Transfer to a bowl and cover with cling film until needed.
- In a separate bowl, whisk egg whites with 120g sugar until it is a stiff shiny meringue.
- Fold meringue into the creme patisserie until no whites are visible in the chocolate mix.
- Spoon mix into frozen ramekins, level off the tops, place into the oven, cook for around 12 minutes.
Sounds delicious, Mark. Thank you very much.
About The French Hotel Barge Finesse
Finesse
- Route: Southern Burgundy: River Saône & Canal du Centre between St-Julien-sur-Dheune and St-Jean-de-Losne
- Up to 8 guests
- Charters and Cabin cruises
- Itineraries: Standard classic, Bike, Family, Golf, Wine
- Learn More: Online Brochure
Contact Paradise Connections Yacht Charters to book FINESSE
View Finesse's online brochure
Visit our website for more info on our barges and barging: www.BargeCharters.com
View Finesse's online brochure
Visit our website for more info on our barges and barging: www.BargeCharters.com
