Amaretto Soufflé

First, I need to warn you: I've never made a soufflé before.  I've never even been in the same room as a soufflé before, so I don't know what one's supposed to taste like, or how it should feel.  That being said, I made one today.

This particular soufflé is from the "400 Appetizers & Party Recipes" book, and it's on page 490.  It sounds pretty good because I love amaretto and all things almonds.  It calls for some amaretti, which I'd never heard of before, but it turns out they're these delicious Italian cookies.  If I get nothing else out of this recipe, the discovery of the amaretti makes it all worth it.

 

All right, so a soufflé is basically a lot of air and egg with a little bit of flavoring.  You put it in a special soufflé dish (which I had a hell of a time finding in Glasgow), and when it bakes, it expands.  You're supposed to serve it right away because it deflates quickly.  From all that I've read, a soufflé is only really pretty when it first comes out of the oven.  Even the act of serving it makes it deflate, and it's still gooey inside, so it all falls apart when you serve it up.  I really don't understand this dish at all.

Well, I baked it.  I might have baked it too long, because when it came out it looked like this:

As you can see, it's a little too brown on top, and it's already started to deflate.  In this picture, I'd already sprinkled a little powdered sugar on top.  Barring that, this is how it looked when it came out of the oven. 

Once you cut it open to serve it, it deflates a lot more.

It's hard to tell from this picture, but the hight in the center is about half the height of the dish.  The inside is a bit runny and very much like you'd expect from half-baked egg whites. 

How does it taste?  Honestly, it tastes like eggs.  Eggs with a little too much sugar and not enough amaretto.  Expecting, according to the book's description, "A mouthwatering and luxurious soufflé with rather more than a hint of Amaretto liqueur," I was not impressed.  But let me point you back to my initial statement: I have never made or even seen a soufflé before tonight.  Maybe I just did it wrong.  I followed the recipe to the letter, but it's possible I just have no intuition for soufflés, and I messed up some important detail.  Oh well, this book has loads of soufflés in it, so I'm sure I'll be making more in the future.  I just hope they aren't all this disappointing. 

Next recipe form the book:  #332, Chocolate and Orange Scotch Pancakes.  Now this is more my style.  I'll get working on them ASAP.