We made four types of soufflé in the cooking class I took: banana, lemon, orange, and (of course) chocolate. I, of course, was skeptical. “Can’t we just make more chocolate soufflés and skip all this fruit nonsense? How about molten cakes, can we do those? Banana? It has to be? Yuck.”
Then the banana soufflés came out of the oven. These towering, yellow/white, airy creations with the most amazing, delicate, fruity and sweet flavor. I was hooked. Hooked. I barely even tasted the chocolate soufflés, and I was utterly disgusted by the lemon and orange (sour! waxy! yuck!). But ever since that cooking class, I’ve wondered if I could replicate our delicious banana soufflés at home.
The first hurdle was finding a recipe. All the ones I could find online involved rum or liqueur, or citrus, or some other strong flavor, but what I wanted was so much simpler. Finally, I unearthed my recipe binder from the cooking class, and just went with the original.
If you’re as skeptical as I was about the idea of a dessert that’s basically just egg whites and bananas, I promise you that this will be so much better than you expect. You might just never go back to chocolate!
Banana Soufflés
INGREDIENTS:
2 ripe bananas
3 tbsp water
1/3 cup plus 1 tbsp sugar
4 egg whites
Pinch of salt
Pinch of cinnamon
DIRECTIONS:
1. Butter and sugar 4 4-ounce ramekins.
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
3. Peel bananas and puree in a food processor until smooth.
4. In a small saucepan, bring water and 1/4 cup sugar to a boil. Simmer 4 minutes or until thickened and sugar has dissolved.
5. Add banana puree and cinnamon to sugar syrup, stir until incorporated. Set aside to cool completely.
6. In a stainless steel bowl, beat egg whites and salt until foamy. Add remaining tablespoon of sugar and beat to soft peaks.
7. Fold cooled banana puree into egg white mixture. Pour into ramekins and place ramekins on a baking sheet.
8. Place baking sheet in the oven and immediately turn temperature to 375 degrees. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until puffed up.
Serves 4.
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14 responses so far ↓
1 Michelle // Dec 11, 2007 at 6:53 pm
I’ve been told that you lose approximately 25 degrees of heat every time you open the oven door. It sounds like your recipe accounts for this when it calls for an immediate temperature turn-down.
I guess this is so the oven maintains a relatively constant temperature while the soufflés are baking rather than have them bake while the oven is working to reach 400 degrees again?
2 Patricia Scarpin // Dec 12, 2007 at 9:59 am
I have made sweet souffle only once, Katy, and it was almost a year ago!
Time to make it again - I’m tagging your recipe right now!
3 steamykitchen // Dec 12, 2007 at 10:16 am
wow. that does sound so simple - but i think i’d still drizzle chocolate all over it! I’m a chocoholic. oh yeah and some rum too. wait but then that defeats the purpose of finding a simple recipe! gah!
4 katy // Dec 12, 2007 at 11:22 am
Patricia — thanks! I’ve actually never made a savory souffle, but I definitely have it on my to-do list. Let me know if you try this one!
Jaden — You definitely can’t go wrong with chocolate and bananas.
I promise it’s delicious on its own though!
5 Ann // Dec 12, 2007 at 4:49 pm
Okay, so we’re definitely linked. Because guess what Redacted Recipes is posting about tomorrow? Not a souffle, but still… we made Jack’s Mum’s Banana Cream Pie over the weekend! Bananas! Ahem. But this comment should be about you, not me.
I think banana is one of the great over-looked dessert fruits. Banana souffle, banana bread pudding… is it ever bad? Your souffles look perfect. Really beautiful. And bet they tasted like heaven.
6 Ann // Dec 12, 2007 at 4:55 pm
Huh. I have just been informed that Jack is NOT posting about his pie tomorrow, but about fish. But we WILL be posting about banana pie soon and I’m SURE we were thinking about bananas simultaneously because we’re linked.
7 Paz // Dec 12, 2007 at 7:46 pm
This looks beautiful and delicious! Thanks or stopping by my blog.
Best,
Paz
8 katy // Dec 13, 2007 at 1:02 pm
Ann — I’m looking forward to the fish AND banana cream pie posts!
Paz — Thanks!
9 Deborah // Dec 13, 2007 at 1:07 pm
I think these sound wonderful! I’m a banana fan - I need to save some bananas for this now!
10 Wicked Good Dinner // Dec 13, 2007 at 9:37 pm
Wow, this looks so yummy!
11 Julie O'Hara // Dec 14, 2007 at 3:20 pm
Katy,
I made banana souffles several months ago from a recipe I saw in Redbook magazine. It was really similar to yours–the souffles only have about 150 calories each which is awesome considering they’re quite a tasty dessert! I love having different things to use up ripe bananas. Thanks for stopping by my blog!
Julie
12 holler // Dec 16, 2007 at 6:23 am
I think bananas are gorgeous when they are cooked. I like cooking them on the barbeque and melting brown sugar on them, then serving them with cream. So this is definitely the souffle for me!
13 Cristina // Jan 3, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Very very Nice! Congratulation
Cristina
http://vidaculinaria.blogspot.com/
14 Michelle // Jan 6, 2008 at 8:20 pm
Banana soufflé… wow, this looks wonderful! I’m definitely going to have to give this a try.
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