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Dessert

Mocha Souffle

A light, airy chocolate coffee soufflé baked in a water bath.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Mocha Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the base

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add the flour and stir to combine.

  3. Gradually pour in the hot coffee and cream, stirring until smooth.

  4. Add the salt and sugar, then mix in the beaten egg yolks.

  5. Cook over hot water until the mixture is smooth.

Fold and bake

  1. Remove from heat and gently fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.

  2. Add the vanilla extract and mix gently.

  3. Pour the mixture into a buttered baking dish.

  4. Bake in a water bath at 350°F (175°C) for 25 minutes.

  5. Serve with Mocha sauce.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  3. Coffee + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,391 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Enriches the base and adds richness and flavour to the roux.
Flour
Thickens the melted butter and coffee mixture into a smooth base.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help thicken the base as it cooks.
Egg whites
Whipped into foam, they lighten the mixture and make it rise.
Hot strong coffee
Provides the mocha flavour and liquid for the base.
Sugar
Sweetens the soufflé and balances the bitterness of the coffee.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Egg whites hold air only while whipped. Folding gently keeps that air in the batter, so the soufflé rises well instead of deflating.

“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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