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Dessert

Banana-Rum Soufflé

A light, airy soufflé made with ripe bananas, dark rum, and egg whites, finished with optional cocoa powder.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Banana and rum match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 183 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

The recipe

Oven425 °F (220 °C)
Timeabout 15 minutes

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Prepare

  1. Lightly butter the insides of four 1-cup ramekins and dust them with sugar. Space the ramekins on a baking sheet and place them in the freezer.

  2. Position the oven rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat to 425 °F (220 °C).

Make the banana base

  1. Combine the sliced bananas, dark brown sugar, lemon juice, and dark rum in a medium saucepan. Cook uncovered over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the bananas begin to soften, about 7 minutes.

  2. Mash the bananas with a potato masher or large fork until mostly smooth.

  3. Continue cooking the mashed bananas to make a thick puree, about 8 more minutes. Cool to room temperature.

Whip and bake

  1. Whip the egg whites and pinch of salt in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until foamy. Increase the speed to high, gradually pour in the 2 tablespoons sugar, and whip until the whites hold soft peaks.

  2. Fold a quarter of the whipped whites into the banana mixture. Fold the remaining whites into the mixture.

  3. Evenly divide the batter among the prepared ramekins.

  4. Bake the soufflés until well puffed and golden, about 15 minutes.

  5. Dust with a light sprinkling of cocoa powder, if desired. Serve immediately.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Banana + rumtop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together183 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Butter + rumtop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,007 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Rum + cocoa powdertop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together56 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Sugar + rumtop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,907 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Butter + bananatop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,529 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whipped to soft peaks, they trap air that lifts the soufflé as it bakes.
Bananas
Cooked into a thick puree that gives the soufflé its moisture and banana flavor.
Dark brown sugar
Sweetens the banana puree and adds caramel-like depth as it cooks down.
Dark rum
Adds aroma and warm flavor to the cooked banana puree.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweet banana flavor.

The step that matters

Folding the whites into the banana mixture. Folding gently keeps the air in the whipped whites. Stirring or deflating the whites makes the soufflé rise less and turn dense.

Flavor stand-ins for the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, banana, rum, egg, cocoa powder):

  1. Vanillabetter flavor fit
  2. Strawberrybetter flavor fit
  3. Coconutbetter flavor fit
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, banana, rum, egg, cocoa powder. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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