Soufflé

Saucy greens slurp up well when mixed into grainy grits in this individually portioned breakfast soufflé.

Everything you love about a cloudlike soufflé, simplified into pancake form. Unlike some soufflé pancakes, this less-fussy version doesn’t require flipping and simply bakes in the oven instead.

Want to make a chocolate soufflé for your love this Valentine’s Day? Don’t be afraid: you can do it! Stir some raspberry jam into the chocolate mixture to make it extra moist and flavorful and special. xoxo, Anna

One of my favorite post-shift hangouts was Painkiller NYC, where my buddy Richie Boccato made a mean Dark and Stormy at his tiki cocktail haven. Sadly, the bar is long gone; I raise my glass to Richie and the best Dark and Stormy anywhere. It is a favorite cocktail of mine, so I thought the combination of rum, lime, and lots of ginger would be really refreshing in a frozen dessert. This is a great summertime treat-light and airy but with a nice boozy kick. What really makes this is the fresh ginger juice. Grate peeled fresh ginger into a small fine-mesh strainer set over a bowl. Once you have a fair amount of pulp, squeeze the juice out of it. You'll need a fairly large piece of fresh ginger, about 12 ounces (335 grams) to get enough juice.

These savory puddings work as a brunch or side dish, with their corn husk "handles" making them look like cheerful sunflowers. After you remove the kernels from the cobs, you scrape the corn milk from the cobs with the back of a knife, then simmer the cobs in cream and milk. This mixture forms the base of the pudding batter, which you pour into corn husk–lined muffin tins. The result is part corn muffin, part soufflé.

Here’s a sweet Southern dish from the heart of Texas; the recipe originated from the Dallas-based mother of a friend of Epicurious member Tina Jones. The spuds are baked with a blend of milk, vanilla, sugar, and butter, and topped with a crunchy walnut topping. This goes with almost any roasted meat.

A sformato is essentially a soufflé that doesn't rise because there isn't any air or egg white whipped into it—foolproof! I serve it in place of mashed potatoes, since it has a great flavor without an excess of butter and cream. If I have people over, I'll bake it in individual gratin dishes with a few fresh thyme leaves on top for presentation's sake. Delicata squash has a flavor similar to that of butternut, but the skin is much thinner—edible, in most cases—and the squash is more delicate overall (hence the name). The flesh of a butternut or acorn squash would be a fine substitute. Cooking with squash in the fall and early winter months will yield the best results with this recipe. I find that out of season the squash become a bit waterlogged. You can do everything but bake the sformato in advance. Bring the dish to room temperature before baking.

Here's a soufflé that can stand up for itself. Michel Richard, of Citronelle in Washington, D.C., ignores tales about soufflés that collapse when the oven is opened (a myth). Instead, he focuses on what matters: a well-seasoned base that infuses the soufflé with flavor, and properly whipped whites that achieve optimum volume as they bake. Whip the whites until firm, but stop before they get too stiff, says Richard, or the soufflé will be grainy. And quell your jitters with his 21st-century trick: Add xanthan gum to the whites. It acts as a stabilizer— resulting in the most dramatic soufflé we've made in a while.

The flavor and texture of these miniature spiced soufflés are reminiscent of sweet potato pie, but with far fewer calories and much less fat.

Chocolate soufflé, with its chewy exterior and warm, puddinglike center, might be considered the more refined cousin of molten chocolate cake. With or without a sauce of Crème Anglaise (basically the ice-cream base on page 468 before it’s frozen), a soufflé is a showstopper. And although it has earned a reputation for difficulty, following a few key techniques will reward you with a masterpiece every time. Before whipping the egg whites, be sure your bowl and whisk are thoroughly clean and dry; just a drop of grease, yolk, or water will prevent the whites from expanding properly. Avoid overbeating the egg whites; you’ve taken them too far if they lose their glossiness and become clumpy. Above all else, don’t open the oven door until the end of the baking time, since any fluctuation in temperature, as well as an accidentally slammed oven door, can cause a soufflé to fall. This recipe will produce the best results when baked in five 10-ounce ramekins; you can divide the batter among six dishes, but the soufflés won’t reach the same height as those shown here (though they will be just as delicious).