Peanut Butter Souffle

[chefmoni]

has anyone made one? we're trying to come up with a recipe, but the peanut butter seems, being so heavy, creates a dense souffle. not light like one would want. any suggestions? and increasing the whites, only makes it taste like scrambled eggs!

thanks!

[etalanian]

What recipe are you using? And how is the PB being added into the souffle?

Eileen

[highchef]

What recipe are you using? And how is the PB being added into the souffle?

Eileen

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what eileen said.

[chefpeon]

I think what you need to do is add the peanut butter in a similar way that you would add chocolate to a chocolate souffle. The peanut butter needs to be lightened before you can add it.

Also another possible problem would be getting enough peanut butter flavor.

For instance, here is a recipe for a typical chocolate souffle:

2 tbsp. butter

3 tbsp. flour

3/4 c. milk

1/2 c. semi-sweet chocolate pieces

4 beaten egg yolks

4 egg whites

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1/4 c. sugar

Butter the sides of a 2-quart souffle dish. Sprinkle sides with a little sugar. Set aside.

In a small saucepan, melt butter. Stir in flour. Add milk all at once. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Add chocolate, stir until melted. Remove from heat. Gradually stir chocolate mixture into beaten egg yolks, set aside.

Beat egg whites and vanilla until soft peaks form. Gradually add 1/4 cup sugar, beating until stiff peaks form. Fold about 1 cup beaten whites into chocolate mixture. Then fold chocolate mixture into remaining beaten whites. Transfer to prepared dish. Bake in a 350 degree oven 35-40 minutes or until a knife inserted near center comes out clean. Serve at once with whipped cream.

What you could do is in the step where you melt the butter, use peanut butter instead (or use a combination of peanut butter and butter). Then, instead of using chocolate chips, use those peanut butter chips (like Reese's). That may get you started in your quest by getting stability, texture and flavor. I think the only adjustments you may have to make would be in the sugar department....in that you may have to reduce it a little bit, because peanut butter chips are sweeter than semi sweet chocolate chips.

Hope that helps!

[ludja]

Steeping the heated cream/milk/creme anglaise with finely ground roasted peanuts might be one way to add flavor to the base. Strain to remove nuts before proceeding.

I've seen recipes for hazelnut and almond souffles that use this approach.

[chefmoni]

ok i ahve tried it many (actually probably about 10-12 times, all different). my basic idea is to make a peanut butter pastry cream and lighten it with the whites. the souffles made in this manner actually had the best flavor, yet were too heavy and dense in texture for a souffle. i did try steeping peanuts in the milk to make a peanut/vanilla pastry cream (then lightened with whites), but the peanuts caused some sort of odd separating effect, most likely from the extra oil. also tried using natural peanut butter, as opposed to processed skippy brand....which resulted in a better consistency, just more of a peanut taste rather than peanut butter, so to say. in a few, i also tried adding lemon juice, as that is supposed to reduce the "egginess" taste that resulted in some the pb pastry cream recipes that i lightened wiht a large amount of whipped whites. also added a little bit of alcohol (rum) to one trial to see if the alcohol would affect it, but no significant change. overall, the recipe i used that i liked the taste best was a pastry cream -- milk, vanilla bean, salt, sugar, cornstarch, peanut butter...lightened iwht whipped whites -- but the texture was off. they all rose beautifully, so adding extra whites did not help and only caused it to taste eggy.

any suggestions?

thanks!

[reenicake]

For a really good peanut butter flavor, I would probably not even go with a roux. (Like a flourless chocolate souffle.) Thin out the peanut butter with enough milk/yolks (or maybe a pate a bombe?) to fold it evenly with the whites. Remember that peanuts are starchy so you don't need the flour/pastry cream, and thus can bulk up the quantity of peanut butter while still getting a good set.

It's a fading memory, but I think this is how we made praline souffles at the old Le Cirque -- a thinned-out praline paste folded into Italian meringue so that we could pipe it out in advance then pop each into the oven to order. You could do the same base but do the whites a la minute (uncooked French meringue) if that works better for you timing-wise.