Blood Orange Chocolate Soufflés — Recipe Fiction (2024)

Light and airy with ribbons of dark chocolate swirled in citrus. A soufflé baked in an orange, perfect if you don’t happen to have ramekins lying around the house. Perfect even if you don’t know what a ramekin is because these aren’t hard to make, the most difficult part is getting the orange out of the peel. And you might even have all the ingredients, okay maybe not blood oranges but any orange will do, if you’re willing to forgo the dramatic ruby drizzle.

These are easy enough to make anytime but impressive enough to whip out on Valentine’s Day. Impress your friends, impress your loved ones, impress yourself.

Special thanks to the Whale Cove Inn on the beautiful Oregon Coast for allowing me use of their internet so I can post this in time for Valentine’s Day. And to Ashley for the amazing copper plate that I finally had something pretty enough to put on.

Blood Orange Chocolate Soufflés

Adapted ever so slightly from zen can cook’s orange soufflé with grand marnier

Makes 4 small soufflés

ingredients

• 4 blood oranges
• The zest from the removed lids
• 1 egg
• 4 tsps. Sugar plus 2 tsp. for egg white and a bit more for dusting the inside of the oranges
• 1 tsp. dark rum (optional)
• 1 T cornstarch
• ½ ounce semisweet chocolate

instructions

1. Pre-heat oven to 400
2. Prepare a baking sheet lined with parchment
3. Cut the tops off the oranges and remove the flesh by cutting around the edge straight down and then removing with a grapefruit spoon. Strain out the pulp and pits and set the juice aside. After removing the flesh from the peel cut just enough off the bottoms of the oranges to create a flat surface.
4. In a small saucepan whisk together egg yolks, sugar, and cornstarch until smooth. Whisk in half of the reserved juice and heat, stirring constantly, over a medium heat until thickened. Remove from heat and stir in the zest and dark rum. In a medium bowl whisk egg white until it begins to get fluffy then add sugar and whisk to soft peaks. Melt the chocolate with 1 tsp. of the reserved juice. Fold the egg whites into the orange cream until completely incorporated then add the chocolate orange mixture and fold in a couple of times to evenly distribute the chocolate but leave it in swirls.
5. Fill the orange peels with the soufflé mixture, flattening the tops if desired (this gives them a neater appearance and makes them less likely to topple).
6. Bake for 18-20 minutes until risen and golden brown on top.
7. Serve immediately sprinkled with powdered sugar and drizzled with a bit of the reserved juice.