Thursday, July 8, 2010

Frozen Plum Souffles

I found myself running through the house shouting one of the things that seriously messes with my street cred the other day.  I was making a frozen dessert and couldn't find them anywhere the next thing that I knew I was searching the house saying to myself, "where are my souffle cups?"  Yes, I finally did it Bryan opened his wallet and pulled out the last little tatters of his "man card" and turned it in.  Anyway I was making Frozen Plum Souffles and could only find one of my 6 small souffle dishes.  It worked OK, I did have the one and made the rest of the souffles in my custard cups which was fine for us and still had the one for pictures.  

The procedure was really pretty easy the ingredients:

2 1/4 cup chopped plums (about 6 of them)
3/4 cup sugar

4 egg yolks
1/3 cup corn syrup
3 TBS unsalted butter
2 bulbs cardamom seeds ground (I used a mortar and pestle)
1 cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla extract

For the Souffles wrap a strip of foil around the souffle cup(s) to form collars so you can overfill them by about 1/2 an inch.  Combine chopped plums and 1/4 cup sugar in a small saucepan and heat mixture until it is bright red and reduced by half (takes about 10 minutes) then put mixture into a food processor and chop until smooth.  Cover and refrigerate until cold.

Mix egg yolks, corn syrup, butter, ground cardamom, and another 1/4 cup sugar in a metal bowl then set on a pan of boiling water to heat.  Whisk constantly while heating to 170 degrees (about 10 minutes) once it reaches temp remove from heat and whisk until cool and thickened took about 10 minutes after I pulled off the heat.

Put heavy cream, 1/4 cup of sugar and vanilla into a dish and beat until you get stiff peaks.  Once that is all set fold in the egg mixture then the bright red plum mixture.  Spoon into your collared souffle dishes (or custard cups if you can't find any of them) and freeze this took about 4 hours to set, but could be made several days ahead.

While those are in the freezer make your plum sauce:

1 1/4 cup chopped plums
2 TBS Sugar
3 TBS Triple Sec
2 bulbs of cardamom ground

Heat all ingredients together in a small sauce pan until bright red and reduced by about 1/3 then put into the chopper and blend until smooth, refrigerate until cold.

When it is time to serve pull the foil collars off add a little sauce to the top garnish with plum slices.  There you go, this turned out really well slightly tart and completely refreshing.  The whipped cream keeps it soft enough to enjoy with a spoon.  The cardamom adds a nice floral quality to the sauce that really rounds the dessert out well.

Now, I know the question you are all asking "where are all of Bryan's souffle cups?" I looked around for a bit after I got these into the freezer and Well...
Dresser Drawer

Box of Cars

Dad isn't innocent either... on top of the printer
 What the hell is in this one?  I found it on the counter 
16 inches from where I was making the souffles 
(didn't see this one until the next day)

6 comments:

  1. Oh my gosh, I am laughing so hard at where your souffle cups were doing double duty! Looks like my house!

    ReplyDelete
  2. The souffle cup photos are hilarious. Tiny bowls have a way of getting a lot of play around the house. Mine always end up under plants.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Souffle looks delicious, I've been craving chocolate souffle because it is so cool and now I have added plums ones to my list for this summer!
    Love the lost ramikin dishes, they are spread throughout my house also, good to see we all think alike!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Funny, Bryan.
    I "lost" a dish a couple months ago. Searched everywhere..even in storage. A week later, I found it, sitting on the kitchen counter filled with bananas. Duhhhhh.

    The plum souffle looks yummy!

    ReplyDelete
  5. This dessert looks fancy. Soufflé always does. So cool that yours is frozen! I love the plum flavor.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I am constantly losing dishes/bowls right under my nose!

    The souffles look delicious and I have a bowl (which I'll probably be looking for later) of plums sitting on my counter.

    Best,
    Bonnie

    ReplyDelete