Vegan Chocolate Soufflé

Hi friends!

I posted a poll on my instagram (@projectveganbaking) to decide my next bake and you lovely people have asked me to make a vegan chocolate soufflé.

Thankfully, chocolate soufflé doesn’t have too many elements and on a good day can be made in less than half an hour so I got to practice this one quite a few times over the weekend. Again I’ll mention that I’m not a professional baker or a chef, and the art of soufflé making is a very technical science that I have barely scratched the surface of. I have, however, come up with a pretty tasty recipe that, in my opinion, is almost indistinguishable from the classic non-vegan version.

Let’s jump right into the ingredients and quickly go through the what, the how and the why!

First on the agenda- aquafaba! 

This special ingredient has become my vegan baking best friend over the last 6 months (sad, I know!) Quite simply, aquafaba is the brine you find in a can of chickpeas or any canned white bean. The preservative water absorbs some of the proteins from the beans/chickpeas and somehow manages to replicate egg whites quite effectively!

Shout out to the gang over at Aquafaba (Vegan Meringue – Hits and Misses) on Facebook. If you’re an aquafaba newbie there’s loads of tips, tricks and discussion in there!

In most of my recipes I reduce the aquafaba by measuring out the liquid from 2 cans of chickpeas (usually 250-300ml) and heating it on the hop for 10-12minutes down to 150-200ml (roughly 1/3rd). However, for this recipe I didn’t reduce it as it wasn’t essential to get the ultra-stiff and sturdy meringue that I come to expect in other recipes; I just needed medium peaks (and the xanthan gum helps it get there!)

*Side note:

An increasingly popular egg white substitute used by vegan chefs and bakers is potato protein. This niche ingredient comes as a powder and when mixed with water performs the same function as egg whites and aquafaba. In my opinion it will eventually become more popular than aquafaba because it’s much easier to control than aquafaba and has zero odour and less allergen-risks. If you are lucky enough to be in possession of potato protein then you can replace the aquafaba in this recipe with:

– 1.5tsp potato protein and 70g of water (leave in the fridge for 1hr to hydrate).

*Shout out to the folks over at www.vegangastronomy.com for inspiring this recipe (they sell potato protein if you are interested).

For the recipe, I used Orgran egg replacer which has potato starch, tapioca flour and citric acid as its main ingredients. You may be able to use the brand Ener-G instead as the ingredients look very similar but I haven’t tested this!

It’s essential to use a good quality dark chocolate for this recipe! Luckily most dark chocolates are vegan so there’s lots of choice!

For this recipe I use bread flour instead of all-purpose flour for the higher protein content. I’m not 100% on the science but I felt a higher protein content would help with developing structure in the soufflé when it is expanding.

My secret ingredient in this recipe is the sweetened condensed coconut milk. On my first few attempts I was getting good height in the soufflé but the flavour was underwhelming so I felt the need to add something sweet into the mix. The texture of this ingredient is also really gooey which works perfectly with the chocolate on the inside of the soufflé.

Other sugary syrups may work as a substitute. If you don’t have sweetened condensed coconut milk then you may be able to use something like maple or agave syrup in combination with a plant milk.

I use Naturli vegan butter which is about 75% fat. I wouldn’t recommend anything less than 75% as the lower you go the more water the butter contains which could affect the delicate structure of the soufflé.

See below for a how-to video!

Onto the recipe:

Vegan Chocolate Soufflé

Recipe by Project Vegan BakingCourse: DessertDifficulty: Medium

Servings

2

servings

Prep time

20

minutes

Cooking time

12

minutes

Indulgent vegan chocolate soufflé. Completely egg free but just as flavoursome and convincing as the non-vegan classic!

Ingredients

• 80g aquafaba

• 60g caster sugar

• 28g bread flour

• 2 1/2 tsp egg replacer (I used Orgran in the UK)

• 75g dark chocolate

• 45g vegan butter

• 1/2 tsp vanilla paste

• 1/2 tbsp sweetened condensed coconut milk

• 1/4 tsp xantham gum

• big pinch of salt

Directions

• Pre-heat your oven to 200C (390F). I use a convection oven so for gas I would imagine ~180-185C is more appropriate.
• Prepare your ramekins by brushing them with softened (not melted) butter. Use upward strokes around the rim of the ramekin to create butter streaks.
• Pour in a teaspoon of caster sugar and rotate the ramekin so that the inside is completely covered. Pour out the excess. The theory suggests that this process will allow the soufflé batter to “climb” the walls of the ramekin.
• Leave the ramekins to chill in the fridge while we work on the other elements; this will slow down the cooking of the edges of the soufflé (that would otherwise get cooked first) and encourage a more consistent bake.
• Sift together bread flour and egg replacer in a mixing bowl.
• Add in the vanilla and the condensed sweetened coconut milk. No need to mix just yet as it will be incorporated later when the melted chocolate is added.
• Melt the chocolate, vegan butter and vegetable fat over a bain marie or in the microwave using short bursts. I mostly use the bain marie method as my microwave is unreliable but often the microwave is the safer option as there is a high risk of contamination using the bain marie method (if water droplets or vapour accidentally get into the chocolate mixture it will seize and burn and become unusable).
• Leave the chocolate mixture to cool for 5 minutes while you work on the meringue.
• Put the aquafaba mixture in a stand mixer (make sure the bowl is VERY clean) with the salt and xantham gum and turn up to medium.
• Once the meringue reaches soft peaks, start adding in the caster sugar one spoonful at a time until fully incorporated. In my experience, vegan meringue cannot be “overbeaten” like traditional egg white meringue, however we only want to whisk the meringue to medium peaks (i.e. when the peaks curl back on themselves). Leaving the meringue at this stage allows it to expand upwards when it bakes in the soufflé batter.
• Add the chocolate mixture to the dry ingredients and carefully mix together with a spoon until just incorporated.
• Spoon 1/3 of the meringue mixture into the batter using a silicone spatula and carefully fold until the mixture is uniform. Be extremely careful not to overmix.
• Add one more 1/3 of the remaining meringue and fold it into the base. Resist the urge to whisk or squish the batter down as we want to keep as much air in it as possible.
• Finally fold in the last 1/3 and when there are no more white streaks, pour the batter into the ramekins.
• I like to leave about 1/2 cm gap between the top of the ramekin and the batter but if you’re ambitious and want to aim for an impressive rise then fill the ramekins to the top and use a knife to scrape it flat.
• Bake at 200C for 10-12minutes.
• Serve the soufflés with coconut cream, vegan ice cream, candied nuts or even a fruit coulis!