Black Cherry Soufflé & Sous Vide Cherry Ice Cream | Recipe by sousvidetools.com

Black Cherry Soufflé with Sous Vide Cherry Ice Cream and Chocolate Sauce

COOK TIME: 2 hours
PREP TIME: 10 hours
DIFFICULTY: Medium
SERVES: 4

Ingredients

Ice Cream

250g of cherries, large (pitted weight)
78g of sugar
35g of egg yolk
330ml of milk
60g of cream
1g of salt
25g of sugar
100g of water
3g of agar agar
0.5g of xanthan gum

Soufflé Base

250g of cherry purée
25g of sugar
25g of cornflour

Soufflé

250g of egg white
250g of sugar
10g of butter, soft
20g of chocolate, grated

Hot Chocolate Sauce

75g of dark chocolate
75g of double cream
75g of glucose
15g of water

To serve

16 Griottine cherries

Equipment

EQUIPMENT

Sous Vide Water Bath
Vacuum Packaging Machine
Vacuum Bag
Blender
Pacojet Machine / Ice Cream Maker
Pacojet Container

Method

Recipe courtesy of Steven Smith from http://www.greatbritishchefs.com/

METHOD

To make the ice cream, preheat a water bath to 85⁰C. Place the milk, cream and salt in a saucepan and heat until the mixture boils, then set aside to cool a little.
In a bowl, mix together the sugar and egg yolks, beating until completely smooth, then add 1/3 of the milk mixture. Whisk until thoroughly combined.
Tip the contents of the bowl into the saucepan containing the rest of the milk mixture and return to the heat. When the temperature reaches 82⁰C, strain using a fine sieve. Collect the mixture in a bowl and place over ice to chill.
In a vacuum bag, combine the cherries, sugar and water. Place the bag in the water bath and leave for 60 minutes to cook.
Use a blender to purée the cooked cherries and then heat gently in a heavy-based saucepan with the agar agar. When the agar agar has dissolved, remove from the heat. Leave to cool.
Once the mixture has set, return it to the blender, blitz together with the xanthan gum and then strain using a fine sieve. Divide in half.
Stir one half into the chilled milk mixture and freeze in a Pacojet container. When you are ready to serve the ice cream, remove the container from the freezer, attach to the Pacojet machine and purée. An ice cream maker could also be used.
Make the soufflé base by stirring together the cherry purée, sugar and cornflour in a saucepan over a low heat. When the mixture becomes thick, spoon onto a tray, stretch a layer of cling film over the top and leave to set, then beat with a whisk to achieve a smooth consistency.
For the chocolate sauce, whisk together the dark chocolate, double cream, glucose and water in a saucepan over a low heat until fully incorporated. Allow to cool.
For the soufflé, preheat the oven to 180⁰C/gas mark 4. Using the soft butter, grease 4 ramekins and sprinkle with the grated chocolate.
Beat the egg whites with a whisk until stiff, adding the sugar a little at a time as you go. Measure out 125g of the soufflé base and combine with the beaten egg whites using a gentle folding action. Use a piping bag to pipe the mixture into the ramekins. With a palette knife, smooth the tops of the soufflés and give each one a gentle tap on the work surface to get rid of large air bubbles. Place in the oven to bake. Take out when well-risen and completely cooked; this should take 7-8 minutes.
To plate, combine the half of the cherry mixture not used in the ice cream with the Griottine cherries. Place some of this mixture on each plate and top with a quenelle of ice cream. Reheat the chocolate sauce and divide between four small pouring jugs, placing one on each plate. Finish each plate with a soufflé, straight from the oven.

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Post by Chris Holland

Our Chef Director Chris Holland worked as Head Chef at the prestigious Alderley Edge hotel before joining us. He has a passion for using the best produce and never compromises on quality. Author of our best selling book Sous Vide The Art of Precision Cooking, Chris is a expert on the sous vide technique.During the later part of my school days at Wardle High School Rochdale I always wanted to be a chef . I knew from the very start that my path to work was never going to be academic it was always going to be something practical and hands on.

As a young boy growing up I was inspired to cook with my Grandma who was and still is an inspiration to me . I have memories of helping make the cakes that she always had made for visitors and family alike . She made the most amazing cakes and I loved nothing more than eating the sweet raw cake batter straight from the bowl . We used to fight over who got to lick the bowl/spoon after the cakes were made. My grandma’s philosophy for cooking even on a shoe string budget was always to use fresh and seasonal ingredients either home grown or bought from the market.

School was somewhat of a drag for me as I was itching to learn to become a chef.

I started at Hopwood Hall college as a chef and instantly fell in love with it .To me it was the only real time I excelled in something and this inspired me to really get my head down and put in the hard work. College was the first time I really excelled in something and gave me the opportunity to laugh at the teachers who said I would never make something of my life!!!!

During the three years at college I also took on a part time position in a local hotel working the bar and restaurant first and then the kitchen. These were great days and gave me the opportunity to see how the industry ticks. I learnt a lot from those days both good and bad !! But I have to say I was itching to work only in the kitchen but it was a good insight into the catering world .

After completing college I moved away from Rochdale for a full time roll at one of Cheshire’s most talked about Hotel restaurants The Stanneylands Hotel. This was the school of hard knocks for me as I quickly realised that although excelling at college meant nothing in “The Real World”.

I loved every minute of the 18 hour days 6 days a week on minimum wage . Although difficult I feel that without this grounding I wouldn’t have achieved what I have today. After 18 months of hard graft I left Stanneylands and went with the Head chef to open a fine dining restaurant at Mere Golf and Country Club. The opportunity to work alongside Matthew Barrett was too good to turn down. I learnt so much from the ex-Ritz chef and working in a much slower paced role helped me develop a much better understanding of how to organise and run a kitchen. We were a very small team and teamwork was and still is the only way to go for me.

After 2 years at Mere I got the opportunity to go into The Alderley Edge Hotel as Junior Souschef. The Early days at the Edge were all about learning new styles of cuising which is invaluable in any role as a chef. I got the opportunity to grow and learn all aspects of every section which was inspiring . I was offered the opportunity at the age of 29 (2004) to take the role of head chef. For me this was when I really started to develop my own style of food.

After 9 years at the top winning Cheshire restaurant of the year , Chef of the Year and appearing on GBM amongst many highlights including cooking for many celebrities and famous people I decided to move on into development with Sousvidetools.

The main inspiration for this was to train and educate people . I always had a great passion for education but could never really see myself at a college . The job is super rewarding and I am proud to say we have become the leading light in sous-vide education in the UK . This is something I am very proud of . Food is my biggest passion and this is what keeps me interested the most . I love to travel and try out other countries cuisines. I am constantly inspired by ingredients and the pursuit of getting the best out of them without destroying their natural flavour .It is super important to me to continue to try and be at the forefront of the food scene this is what inspire me and the team to keep driving forward .

Technology is now widely used in the industry and I am super proud to say we have been a big part of spreading that message.

I am very lucky to be in the position I am and the drive to constantly improve our training and links to the next generation of young budding hospitality chefs.

TI feel that my experience over the last 25 years really enables me to get close and educate the “next generation” of chefs .

The industry which I love is really struggling to bring through new recruits and if I can help that process I will be immensely proud.

The food seen in the Uk has improved dramatically over the last ten years and I feel this will continue with the correct education. What happens next only fate will tell us...

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