fudge-souffle

first find your oven

it is usually in the kitchen

and resembles a large box

with a door

look inside

does it have some room

so the soufflé can rise?

 

turn it on and heat it up

all the way to 375 F

 

discover that you don’t have

a soufflé mold

in fact—what is that?

go to the store

buy a 1.5 qt mold

 

back home the oven is hot

and you look again at the recipe

 

you will need

4.5 oz bittersweet chocolate

8 large eggs (only the whites)

¼ cup of sugar

2 teaspoons of lemon juice

whipped cream or

crème anglaise

(which is English cream

which is not a cream but a pouring custard)

2-3 tablespoons of powdered sugar

 

go to the store to buy all of the above

you’re home again and the kitchen is hot

 

next coat the inside of the mold with butter

oops—that wasn’t on the list

so its off to the store again

it is now close to supper

so you might as well buy

food to feed the family

 

back home

put all the groceries away

and coat the soufflé mold

with that butter

add some of the sugar

roll it around until the mold

is nicely covered in sugar and butter

 

next comes melting the chocolate

and you discover this involves a double boiler

guess what?—yes, it’s back to the store

 

at home the kids have collapsed

hungry and terribly tired

but you soldier on

melt the chocolate

over high heat in the double boiler

 

place the egg whites

sugar

and lemon

in another double boiler

(it would have been nice

if they had told you. . .

at least you know where

to find them at the store)

 

back in the kitchen

you might as well pause

put the kids to bed

it’s ten pm and there is school tomorrow

 

so place the eggs whites, etc

into the second double boiler

over boiling water

whisk until lukewarm

yes! you have a whisk!

 

remove from heat

and use an electric mixer

to whip the eggs to stiff peaks

use a rubber spatula to fold

the hot chocolate into the whipped eggs

 

gently place the soufflé mix

into the buttered and sugared mold

place in the center of the oven

did you remove the racks above the soufflé?

 

bake until the soufflé has risen

one and a half times in height

and starts to brown on top

or—about 20 minutes

 

remove from oven

top with powdered sugar

serve immediately

with whipped cream

or crème anglaise

 

ok just go ahead and

wake up the kids

let them eat the soufflé

since they had no dinner

 

isn’t it wonderful!

 

Pamela Olson, 4/25/09

 

Read Write Poem’s prompt

“How-To”

« »