Last night, I ate a cheese cloud. It was puffy, fluffy, richly cheesy, and melted away like cotton candy in my mouth. In other words, I had cheese soufflé. Yes, friends, we’re talking about soufflé, which can seem totally scary but take a deep breath, everything is going to work out. Even a fallen cheese soufflé is freaking delicious – cheesy eggs, YUM! Longtime BBC broadcaster and rabbi Lionel Blue said it best, “If a dish doesn’t turn out right, change the name and don’t bat an eyelid. A fallen soufflé is only a risen omelet. It depends on the self-confidence with which you present it.”

Cheese soufflé is my favorite way to use up all the little bits of this and that in the cheese drawer. And let’s face it, we have two cheesemongers with very little willpower living in the same household, which ensures that we always have lots of small chunks of cheese in our fridge. My favorite recipe is Alton Brown’s, which I’ve used for years with (mostly) great success.

One small but very important step in the recipe is to butter the soufflé mold (a.k.a. giant ramekin) and then coat the inside with Parmigiano Reggiano. This creates a toasted, crunchy cheese layer coating the soufflé and oh my goodness it might be my favorite part. Even though I switch up the cheese all the time, I always use Parmigiano for this step because it creates the best crunchy, nutty, salty crust. 

I also do try to get a bit of cheddar in the soufflé itself – Prairie Breeze is a very good choice – but other than that, it’s a bit of this, and a bit of that. It just has to be the good stuff, and then it can be anything! The one I made last night was soo cheesy, I think I ended up using up like six different ones, along with the Parmigiano and Prairie Breeze, just from the pieces left in the fridge. And now we have room for the new cheese Dad and I will inevitably bring home.

Have I convinced you to give soufflé a shot? It’s a delicious adventure! And I don’t know about you but I’m craving even the slightest adventure. I like to prep everything before I start – mixing all the dry ingredients together, separating the eggs, all that good stuff – just to make it easier on myself, and also because it makes me feel like I’m in a cooking show. Do it, do it! It’ll be fun!

For the love of cheese and cooking fun times,

Kiri

P.S. Speaking of adventures in the kitchen, in this video chef Sohla El-Waylly talks about her own cooking adventures while making recipes from different times in her life. Sohla is a good storyteller, SO charming, and funny. For happiest results, watch, rewind, repeat.