Scottish Raspberry Souffle

When you make this Scottish Raspberry Souffle recipe, with the best Scottish raspberries, you will be able to taste the raspberry flavour which is so often missing in commercially grown (forced) raspberries sold in the supermarket. The word soufflé is the past participle of the French verb souffler, which means ‘puffed up’, which becomes a very apt description of what happens to this combination of raspberry cream and egg whites in the oven.

There is a myth that a souffle is difficult to make, they are not; the rise and (and the inevitable fall) of every souffle is a direct result of temperature. Control the temperature and you control the souffle. Heat expands the air in the egg whites; coolness deflates it. So they are very easy to make and they will only fall if allowed to cool, and they don’t take long at all to bake, so serve immediately from the oven.

Scottish Raspberry Souffle Recipe

Serves 4 (in small ramekins, 150ml)

Recipe Ingredients:

For the Raspberry cream

For the small ramekin dishes:

Recipe Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 190°C.

Before beginning brush 4 deep ramekins with a layer of melted butter, (tip: use upward strokes to give the rising puff a direction to follow). Sprinkle over the butter inside the dish all around with the grated chocolate and chill in the fridge to set.

For the raspberry cream base. Sift the flour and cornflour together. Then, in a heavy-based saucepan heat the milk and cream until almost boiling. Beat the egg yolks and sugar together in a large bowl, then mix in the flour and corn flour. Into this egg and flour mixture add a small amount of the hot creamy milk, and whisk well until the mixture is smooth. Once it is smooth and is without lumps then gradually whisk in the rest of the creamy milk.

Pour all this mixture from the mixing bowl back into the pan and whisk over a medium-low heat for 3-5 minutes. The mixture will become thickened and smooth. When ready transfer it back into the bowl, cover and cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally to prevent a skin forming.

Split the vanilla pod and into a saucepan put the raspberries, with half the caster sugar, the vanilla pod and seeds and heat slowly, stirring until the sugar fully dissolves. Cover and simmer for about 5 minutes until the fruit has softened into a puree. Sieve the puree through a sieve, pushing it through with the back of a ladle. Discard the raspberry seeds and vanilla pod left in the sieve and leave the puree to cool. Mix the raspberry puree into the raspberry cream base.

Soak the crushed raspberries (80g) with some Raspberry Liqueur. In the bottom of the ramekin scatter some of the crushed and soaked raspberries.

In a large, clean bowl whisk the egg whites to firm peaks, then gradually whisk in the remaining 50g of caster sugar to make a the whisked egg whites become stiff and full or air. Whisk a third of the egg whites into the raspberry cream base, then very carefully fold in the rest of the egg whites, using a large metal spoon, folding carefully to maintain the amount of air in the mixture.

Divide the raspberry base among the prepared dishes and tap them on the work surface to level the mixture. Smooth the tops with a palette knife, then run the knife inside and around the edge (this helps the raspberry puff to rise evenly). Sit the ramekins on a wide baking tray and bake for 10-12 minutes until well risen and lightly golden on top. The Scottish Raspberry Puffs should wobble gently in the middle when ready, dust with icing sugar and serve at once.