Eggless Chocolate Souffle flavoured with Cointreau

When I saw the Daring Cooks' challenge for November, I was excited and nervous at the same time. I had never tried making a souffle before, even though I loved eating it. But the knowledge that a souffle is supposed to rise with the help of eggs...lots of eggs, made me aware of the high possibility of a failure.

Dave and Linda from Monkeyshines in the Kitchen chose Soufflés as our November 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge! Dave and Linda provided many of their own delicious recipes plus a sinfully decadent chocolate soufflé recipe adapted from Gordon Ramsay’s recipe found at the BBC Good Food website.

Nonetheless, believing in the power of substitutes, I was hopeful of finding a recipe that suited me. I scoured the internet for quite a while, searching for savoury and dessert souffles alike; but with no success. Alas, it seemed like eggs are to a souffle what fruits are to a jam! Each recipe I came across used eggs or gelatin. I was almost going to give up and pull out of this month's challenge....until I finally came upon this recipe.

The recipe used tofu and baking powder instead of eggs. I have used tofu in the past as an egg substitute while making quiche. So I felt that this recipe might just work. And with its' orange-chocolate combo, it was easy to make up my mind. A little bit of tweaking...like halving the recipe for starters, and I was good to go. Having no ramekins, I made my souffles in mugs.....and they worked just as well!

For 4 servings:

• 200 gms dark chocolate
• 250 gms silken tofu 
• 1/4 cup cocoa
• 6 tablespoons honey 
• 2 tablespoons orange liqueur (I used Cointreau) 
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 
• 1/4 cup milk 
• 1/4 cup flour 
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Preheat oven to 180 C. 

Place the chocolate in a bowl and place in hot water to melt, stirring a few times in between.

Place remaining ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth and creamy. Add the melted chocolate and puree a few moments.

Pour the mixture into lightly oiled soufflé dishes, ending at least 1 inch below the rim.  Then bake for 45 minutes and serve after cooling for 5 mins.

I was thrilled to see the souffles rising in the oven after 20 mins or so. I couldn't believe that my first attempt with souffles was working! 

I didn't realize that souffles started deflating as soon as they started to cool down , and the first one fell quite a bit by the time I set everything up. Luckily, the larger souffle had to sit in the oven for a bit longer, so I was ready and waiting to click away....and managed to get the pictures before it started to fall!

Despite my fears, and inspite of being eggless and gelatin-less, the souffles rose beautifully. And they were delicious! Hard to say they were made with tofu. Great taste and great texture.

I put the leftovers in the fridge, and the souffle tasted even better the next day....kind of like a chocolate fudge cake. Next in line....a savoury souffle!  

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