Celebrated French chef Guillaume Brahimi recently hit a milestone 10 years of running his Melbourne restaurant Bistro Guillaume. To mark the occasion, Brahimi has given Broadsheet his recipe for the much-loved airy souffle that he learned to make while working as an apprentice at Aux Charpentiers in Paris, before moving to Australia in the ’90s.
The twice-baked cheese souffle is one of the most ordered entrees of the past 10 years at Bistro Guillaume, says Brahimi. The indulgent dish takes around 45 minutes to prepare. It’s made with four different cheeses, and the chef recommends serving it with a crisp salad of green apples, watercress and walnuts to cut through the richness of the dish.
Guillaume Brahimi’s twice-baked cheese souffle
Serves: 4
Preparation time: 45 minutes
Cooking time: 40 minutes
Ingredients:
340ml milk
1 bay leaf
48g butter
44g flour
50g blue cheese
20g unsalted butter
30g parmesan cheese, finely grated
60g egg whites
32g egg yolk
40m pure cream
<>80g Gruyere cheese, grated
Roquefort cream
400ml pure cream
400ml white wine
100g roquefort cheese
Method:
Bring milk and bay leaf to boil over a medium-high heat.
Melt butter in a hot pan until bubbling then add flour and whisk for 5 minutes. Slowly add hot milk, stirring for approximately 10 minutes, or until mixture is smooth.
Turn off heat and whisk in blue cheese. Transfer to a food processor and blend until smooth. Cover with cling film or baking paper to stop skin forming. Set aside to cool.
Preheat the oven to 170°C. Brush four 10-centimetre souffle dishes with softened unsalted butter and coat with parmesan.
Add egg yolks to cooled white sauce. Stir to combine.
Whisk egg whites into medium peaks, then fold into the white sauce.
Carefully spoon the mixture into prepared dishes. Place a tea towel in a deep roasting tin and sit dishes on top. Fill the tin with hot water, up to the halfway point on the souffle dishes.
Bake for 30 minutes, turning the tray around halfway through cooking time. Remove from
the oven and leave to cool in the tray.
For the roquefort cream, place cream and wine in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Simmer to reduce the sauce then remove from heat.
Using a hand blender, blend in roquefort cheese until smooth. Set aside and keep warm.
When souffles are cool enough to handle, line a baking tray with baking paper. Place four spots of cream (around 2 tsp in size) on the baking paper. Carefully remove souffles from the dishes by turning them over onto each spot on the tray.
Top with 20g grated Gruyere per souffle. Bake for 6–7 minutes or until risen and golden.
To serve, spoon roquefort cream over souffle.
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