Gruyere, Bacon and Apple Cider Soufflé

A soufflé is one of the greatest things on earth. They are so light that they are almost ethereal. This one is savory, comforting, and creamy and has a wonderful crust. It is a magical mixture of eggs and cheese and gets right to the heart of September with hard apple cider, bacon and Gruyere cheese.

Making a soufflé is not rocket science. It’s just making a cheese sauce (if you’ve made mac n’ cheese you know this), beating some egg yolks and whisking egg whites and then combining all three components. I am not a graceful woman, so believe me when I say that if I can do a soufflé, you most assuredly can. Take a little help from the stores here-Trader Joe’s® has a fabulous bag of shredded Gruyere and Swiss cheeses (4 cups, so you have one cup to spare) and most stores have real bacon crumbles in a small bag next to the salad dressings.

Ingredients:

Cooking spray

2 Tablespoons fine, dry breadcrumbs

6 Tablespoons butter

1/3 cup flour

1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)

Freshly cracked black pepper to taste

Freshly grated nutmeg to taste (I like a lot)

1½ cups milk

½ cup hard apple cider (or regular apple cider)

3 cups grated Gruyere and/or Swiss cheese

1/3 cup crumbled bacon pieces

6 eggs, separated (egg whites in one mixing bowl and yolks in another)

Directions: Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.

If you have a nice, large soufflé dish, by all means use that. If not, just spray a 2 ½ or 3 quart casserole dish (it needs to be deep, not long) with cooking spray and sprinkle with breadcrumbs. Turn the dish around to thoroughly coat the bottom and sides with breadcrumbs. Turn the dish over and dump the excess breadcrumbs.

Take a big enough piece of wax paper to go all the way around your dish and then fold it in half lengthwise. Place it around your dish and tape it so that it stands about 2 inches above your dish. Just to save you trouble later, go ahead and do a few small ramekins with spray and breadcrumbs too, in case you have too much soufflé mixture.

Place the prepared dish on a baking sheet and set aside.

Now, then, let’s get to the cheese sauce: Melt the butter in a medium saucepan. Dump in the flour, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Stir for a minute and then add the milk. Whisk the mixture together over medium heat until it gets thick. Whisk in the cider.

Turn the heat to low and add in the cheese by handfuls, whisking each handful until it melts before adding the next. The mixture should be really thick by now, so add in the cider a little at a time until you get a mixture that whisks easily—not super thick, not soupy. You may need more than ½ cup of cider, so keep that bottle handy. Add in the bacon pieces and give it a stir. Turn off the heat and let the cheesy goodness cool a bit while you prep the eggs.

Whisk the egg yolks together until they are thick and golden—just a few minutes.

In another bowl (a stand mixer is a blessing here), whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

Add a bit of the cheese sauce to the egg yolks and whisk together. Pour the entire bowl of egg yolks into the cheese sauce and whisk until smooth.

Fold a big spoonful of the stiffly beaten egg whites into the cheese sauce. Add a bit more and continue adding and folding until you have one big, glorious bowl of soufflé mixture.

Pour the soufflé mixture into your prepared, collared dish. You want to come up to just about an inch from the top so, if you have too much, just put it into some ramekins and place those alongside the main dish on the baking dish.

Run your finger along the inside edge of the baking dish, going about ½ inch down. The outermost edge of the mixture should be about ½ inch deeper than the inside. This just helps the middle part rise a little more than the edges, so it’s not a huge deal if you don’t do it.

Bake the soufflé for 90 minutes without peeking (ramekins for 60 minutes) or until a toothpick in the center comes out clean.

Remove the wax paper collar and serve as soon as you can by placing two forks back to back and pulling a piece of the soufflé apart. Continue around the soufflé with the two folks and serve with a large spoon to scoop each piece out.

Serve with some French bread, grapes, sliced apples, green salad, whatever.

Don’t you look fancy now?