Comté Cheese Soufflé

June 2, 2024

Serves 4-6 as a starter:

Ingredients:

  • 25 g of plain flour
  • 25 g of butter, plus some more for greasing the baking dish
  • 220 ml of whole milk, at room temperature or warmed
  • 80 g of young Comté cheese, grated plus 5-10 g to finish the dish
  • 4 eggs (3 if large )
  • 1/2 of a teaspoon of Dijon mustard
  • sea salt to taste
  • white pepper
  • a small handful of chopped chives to garnish
  • a handful of breadcrumbs

Grease thoroughly an oval baking dish (about 20 cm in length) with some butter and coat with the breadcrumbs (shaking out the excess).

Preheat the oven to 180 C fan.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan on a medium heat, add the flour, whisk and cook for a couple of minutes, until lightly golden in colour.

Lower the heat and pour in a little bit of milk, whisk well. Carry on adding the milk, little by little to avoid any lumps, whisking or stirring all the while. Once the mixture turns smooth add the mustard and grated cheese. Continue cooking for further 4-5 minutes seasoning with the salt and pepper to your liking (it shouldn’t be too mild though).

Remove from the heat to cool down a little. Separate the eggs and add the egg yolks to the soufflé base, one by one, stirring the sauce all the time until silky smooth.

In a separate clean bowl whisk the egg whites until they form firm peaks.

Transfer the warm soufflé base to a large bowl and whisk in a third of the egg whites. Then carefully fold in the remaining egg whites with a spatula, trying to minimise the loss of volume and lightness.

Pour the mixture into the prepared dish.

Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes.

Open the oven and quickly sprinkle the top with the extra grated cheese, bake for a further 5 minutes.

Sprinkle the soufflé with the chives and serve immediately placing the dish in the middle of the table so everyone can help themselves.