How does the history of soufflé mixture affect the height of soufflé?

How does the history of soufflé mixture between folding the whisked egg whites into the batter and place it in the oven affect the height of soufflé?

                                            Credit: The Spruce Eats

Introduction

Soufflé is a airy cake simply makes with flour, eggs, butter and milk. It originated in France and became a cornerstone of French dessert. It is notable that French cooking focuses on the techniques of making consistent and simple delicious food, instead of food innovation. Although making a fluffy and light soufflé is not complicated, it does take time and skills to master. Therefore, it is vital to investigate how soufflé is made in order to make a perfect soufflé. 

Experiment test

What?

To investigate how the history of soufflé mixture between folding the whisked egg whites into the batter and place it in the oven affect the height of soufflé.

Who?

Li Poon Lai, Tracy (group 17)

When?

To measure the height of soufflé right after it finished. 

Where?

My home.

Why?

To find out the best timing to fold the whisked egg whites into the batter and place it in the oven so as to bake a soufflé with doubled its size. 

How?

Place the soufflé mixture in the oven for different timing. i.e. put it immediately after folding, place it in room temperature for half an hour, two hours, in the fridge for six hours and for 1 day.

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Recipe of soufflé (For four 3.5-inch ramekins)

Ingredients:
For coating the ramekins

    15g butter (room temperature) 

    20g sugar

To make the soufflé
    2 egg yolks
    30g sugar (for the egg yolks)
    20g cake flour
    28g unsalted butter
    125g milk
    1/4tsp vanilla extract
    2 egg whites
    25g sugar (for the egg whites)

Steps:

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C. 
2. Butter the ramekins and sprinkle some sugar into each. Place in freezer. 
3. Separate whites from yolks and set aside until ready to use. 
4. In a large bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, the flour, until it forms a smooth batter. 
5. In a saucepan, scald the milk, unsalted butter and vanilla extract over medium heat. Remove from heat when everything is melted. 
6. Slowly whisk the hot milk into the batter. Keep stirring to combine all the ingredients. 
7. Pour the mixture into the saucepan. Cook and stir the mixture with low heat until it has thickened. Remove from heat and let it cool until lukewarm. 
8. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites on medium-high speed. Add sugar at a few times. Continue beating until stiff peaks form. 
9. Pour half of the whipped egg whites into the batter at a time. Gradually fold and mix them well.
10. Divide the mixture evenly into four ramekins. Rub your thumb around the inside of the rim to create some space between the ramekin and the mixture. This will help the soufflé to rise straight. 
11. Place the ramekins into a baking tray and bake at 190°C for 10 minutes and at 180°C for 5 minutes. 
12. Sprinkle powdered sugar on each soufflé and serve immediately. 

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The science behind the history of soufflé mixture

A perfect fluffy soufflé is usually defined as double in volume. Its height is not only depends on the beating time and folding skills, but also the history of soufflé mixture before putting it in the oven. In other words, how different of the height and quality of soufflé if we place the mixture for a certain period of time.

Before knowing the influences of the history of soufflé mixture, we have to first identify what makes a soufflé rise in the mixture. The soufflé mixture contains batter and whisked egg whites, which is mixed with sugar to become meringues. The process of whisking egg whites is the key to make a fluffy soufflé that taste like a heap of bubbles. Therefore, we have to fold the batter and whisked egg whites faster so as to keep the air bubbles stay in the mixture. Once the folding is finished, put it in the oven immediately and let those air bubbles expand during the baking progress. Those bubbles will be finish up as rigid or spongy foams (Hargittai, 2015).

Given the fact that the expansion is directly affected the increase in size of the air bubbles, it brought about a mechanism. The air could have a 25% increase on heating which means between 20°C and 100°C. Yet, soufflé is supposed to increase twofold or threefold (Hargittai, 2015). Once the egg whites are beaten, it consists a lot of air bubbles and some will be break during the folding process. As the air bubbles are brittle and burst easily, we should not left the soufflé mixture to sit for any length of time or the soufflé will be collapsed during baking (Medrich, 2017). As a result, the best timing of pouring the mixture into the ramekins would be right after folding whisked egg whites and batter evenly and foamy, in order to let the air bubbles expand well during baking.

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Identifying 3 variables

Independent Variables	Dependent Variable	Controlled Variables
l      The history of soufflé mixture       - cooked immediately after folding whisked egg whites       - place it in room temperature for        30 minutes       - place it in room temperature for 2 hours       - place it in the fridge for 6 hours       - place it in the fridge for 1 day	l   The height and fluffiness of soufflé	l      The amount of butter and sugar coverage in the ramekin l       Brand of all ingredients (butter, sugar, eggs, milk, cake flour, vanilla extract) l     The amount of other ingredients  l      Speed of mixing the ingredients l      Speed of beating egg whites l      Time of beating egg whites (until stiff peaks) l      Speed and time of mixing all the ingredients and egg whites l      Baking time l      Temperature of oven l       Volume of soufflé mixture in each ramekin l       Size of each ramekin

Reference
Cooking Tree. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJYvg1NhzMQ&t=342s.
Leiths School of food and wine. (2020). Retrieved from https://www.leiths.com/how-tos/how-to-whisk-egg-whites.
Hargittai, B. (2015). Culture of Chemistry: The Best Articles on the Human Side of 20th-Century Chemistry from the Archives of the Chemical Intelligencer. New York: Springer. 
Medrich, A. (2017). Cocolat: Extraordinary Chocolate Desserts. New York: Dover Publications, INC.