Orange soufflé

Who doesn't love the theatrics and taste of a soufflé?  I still remember times when I've had it for dessert when eating out.  My husband and I had the best ones at The Four Seasons Restaurant and La Grenouille in New York City and we still talk about it now and then.

Thanks to this blog, I learned to make soufflé at home.  Back in 2011, I started with a lemon soufflé.  It wasn't nearly as difficult as I imagined and it was delicious - it's one of those things that kind of melts in your mouth and disappears quickly.  And I gradually moved on...and tried chocolate soufflé (with orange crème anglaise), a chocolate version with Grand Marnier, as well as a plain Grand Marnier one.

I've had different degrees of success.  Over-whipping the egg whites seems to be my major problem but honestly, when you're not a professional or under the pressure of serving them to paying guests, imperfect soufflés are still really good!  I don't know how restaurants manage to bring soufflés to the table while they're still tall and lofty; my attempts at home start deflating seconds out of the oven.

An orange soufflés flavored with orange zest, fresh orange juice, and Grand Marnier

When wintertime rolls around and the holidays approach, I tend to think about soufflés a lot.  While I love to make and eat them, and I do make the ones I mentioned above occasionally, trying to photograph them to blog about is not so fun. But I was craving soufflé, particularly after looking through a holiday magazine and spotting an orange one (evidently, I have a thing for orange when it comes to soufflé), so I made it and tried to take some pics along the way.

These soufflés rose and rose steadily in the oven, but this is the first time they've cracked as much as they did.  Maybe I over-whipped my whites again, or I was too liberal with my liquid measurements, throwing in a little extra orange juice the way I did?  I'm not sure, to be honest, and as much as I love a "neat" soufflé, there's something kind of endearing about a sloppy, overflowing one as well.  I think so, anyway.

I love digging right into the center with a spoon.  It's steaming hot and so light and pillowy soft inside.  It really is like eating some sort of sweet eggy clouds.  In this case, these were bursting with orange flavor.  A warm soufflé is really good with a cold crème anglaise sauce as a contrast but even without it, they are surely divine just on their own.

My husband and I devoured these.  So I've indulged my soufflé craving, for now...