Fresh berry soufflé with berry sauce

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**RECEIP, MAKES TWO (EASILY MULTIPLIED)**

For the syrup:

6 oz (170g) fresh raspberries
6 oz (170g) fresh blueberries
1 tablespoon (12g) granulated sugar

For the base:

2 tablespoons (24g) granulated sugar
2 tablespoons (16g) cornstarch
2 egg yolks
2/3 cup (160mL) of the syrup
1 tablespoon (14g) butter

For the meringue:

2 egg whites
small pinch of salt
small pinch of cream of tarter (or a few drops of lemon/lime juice or vinegar)
1/3 cup (40g) powdered sugar (could use 3 tablespoons granulated sugar instead)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla


Start with the syrup. Reserve a few berries for garnish, then smash up the rest and stir in the sugar in a saucepan. Bring to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Use a wooden spoon to grind everything through sieve and discard the remaining solids. You should have about 1 cup (237mL) of syrup. Let cool. Wash out the sauce pan.

Crack two eggs into a mixing bowl. Remove the yolks and put them in the cleaned, cooled sauce pan. Set the whites aside. To make the soufflé base, whisk the sugar into the egg yolks. Add the cornstarch but don't stir it in yet. Get 2/3 of your syrup and slowly drizzle it into the saucepan while you whisk, gettin the starch smoothly dispersed in a thick slurry before you dump in all of the syrup (which, remember, should be only 2/3 of the total you made). Put in the butter.

Turn the heat on low and whisk constantly while the butter melts in. You might need to up the heat slightly to make the soufflé base thicken, but be conservative. After a few minutes of whisking, you should first notice the egg proteins start to cook and thicken the mixture — whisk aggressively so they don't form big curds. Keep whisking until the mixture reaches the somewhat higher temperature at which the cornstarch will gelatinize, which should be visibly apparent. As soon as the mixture is fully thickened, take it off the heat and let it cool.

Everything up to this point could be done well in advance. When you're ready to bake, get your oven heating to 375ºF/190ºC, no convection fan.

Make the meringue. Add the cream of tartar and salt to the egg whites and beat them until foamy and glossy and you get soft peaks. Beat in the powdered sugar in at least two separate installments, and keep beating until you get stiff peaks. Mix in the vanilla.

Melt a little additional butter and use it to grease the inside of two small ramekins or oven-safe teacups.

Scoop about 1/3 of the meringue in with the soufflé base and whisk them together thoroughly — don't worry about deflating the foam. Then dump the base mixture in with the rest of the meringue and gently fold everything together until mostly homogenous — do worry about deflating the foam this time.

Fill the baking dishes all the way to the brim and smooth off the top. Use your thumb to scoop a little depression just inside the lip of the dish, as shown in the video. Bake until puffy and you just start to get a little golden brown on the top, 15-20 min. You can assess the internal doneness by tapping the dish — if the soufflé wobbles, it's still a little gooey inside, which I consider desirable but some people like it cooked more solid.

While the soufflés are baking, transfer the remaining third of your berry sauce into some kind of small serving container.

Soufflés start to deflate as soon as you take them out of the oven, so only let it cool a few minutes before eating. You can garnish with a dusting of powdered sugar and a few berries on top. Dig a little hole in the center of the soufflé and pour in some sauce.