Tessa's Recipe Rundown
Taste: Rich without being overpowering. Absolutely perfect for Valentine’s Day.
Texture: Like eating a heavenly chocolate cloud.
Ease: Surprisingly easy – just note that these soufflés are best served the moment they’re removed from the oven, for best and most impressive results.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe: The most romantic, delicious, and show-stopping dessert for two for any romantic occasion.
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Chocolate Soufflés for Two are the absolute perfect Valentine’s Day dessert to enjoy with your sweetheart.
They look super impressive and gourmet, but they’re secretly super simple to make! You probably already have most of the ingredients on hand.
And the best part? You can prep these up to a day ahead of time, so when you’re ready to bake, they’re ready to serve in just 20 minutes!
There’s no better surprise to melt someone’s heart than an indulgent homemade treat, and these indulgent babies are no exception.
I hope you and your Valentine (or bestie) enjoy these Chocolate Soufflés as much as I do!
Sprinkle of Science
How to Make Chocolate Soufflés
What is a Soufflé?
A soufflé is a French dish that can be made sweet or savory, depending on the ingredients. Egg whites are the leavening agent here, creating height and lightness as the soufflés bake. Soft and fluffy in the middle, and crisp on the outside, a good soufflé is cloud-like yet rich, indulgent, and heavenly to eat.
Chocolate Soufflé Ingredient Tips
I highly recommend using the best quality ingredients you can get, especially when it comes to the chocolate (the star of the show here). I typically use Ghirardelli baking chocolate, as it’s delicious and readily available at most grocery stores. Valrhona and Guittard are other high-quality brands available in some stores or online.
Are Chocolate Soufflés Hard to Make?
No! While soufflés are notoriously finicky and prone to collapsing quickly, this recipe has never once failed me! Not even when I made it in my Breville toaster oven (which truly is more like a mini oven than a toaster), or even when I drove the unbaked soufflés over to my friend’s house and baked them in her oven. Just note that they may collapse a little – that’s totally okay! More tips on this just below.
How to Prevent Chocolate Soufflés Falling or Collapsing
- Avoid opening and closing the oven door too many times, as slamming the oven door can cause the soufflés to collapse.
- I recommend serving the soufflés as soon as they’re removed from the oven – if you wait too long to serve them, they will likely fall.
- Don’t leave out the cream of tartar, as this helps to stabilize the egg.
How to Serve Chocolate Soufflés
The soufflés will begin to lose their height and even collapse as soon as they’re removed from the oven. For the most impressive presentation, serve immediately once removed from the oven. Have your powdered sugar and raspberry sauce at the ready for this!
The powdered sugar garnish really is worth the extra few moments to add. It just looks so gourmet! I like to use my handy OXO Baker’s Dusting Wand to make quick and easy work of this. Also, the raspberry sauce really does add the perfectly complementary tartness and freshness. At the very least, serve alongside fresh raspberries if you don’t have time to make the sauce.
How to Make Chocolate Soufflés Ahead of Time
The best part about this recipe is that the batter can be prepared and poured into the ramekins, then covered and refrigerated for up to 1 day ahead of time. Bake directly from the fridge, adding up to 5 minutes to the baking time.
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Ingredients
Chocolate Soufflés:
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
- 2 tablespoons unsweetened natural cocoa powder
- 3 ounces (85 grams) bittersweet chocolate, chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 large egg yolks
- 2 large egg whites
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- Pinch salt
- Pinch cream of tartar
Raspberry Sauce:
- 5 ounces (142 grams) fresh or thawed frozen raspberries
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- Powdered sugar, for garnish
Instructions
Chocolate Soufflés:
- Preheat the oven to 375°F. Brush 1 tablespoon of the butter on two 8-ounce ramekins to grease. Coat the ramekins with cocoa powder, tapping out the excess.
- In a large microwave-safe bowl, microwave the chocolate and remaining 2 tablespoons of butter in 30-second bursts, stirring between each burst, until the chocolate mixture is melted and smooth. Use a rubber spatula to stir in vanilla and egg yolks, one at a time.
- In a clean bowl, use an electric mixer (stand mixer or hand mixer works) to beat the egg whites, sugar, salt, and cream of tartar just until stiff peaks form. Gently fold the egg white mixture into the chocolate. Spoon into the prepared ramekins.
- Make Ahead: At this point, Soufflés can be covered in plastic wrap and refrigerated at this point for up to 1 day.
- Bake until puffed and set, about 20 minutes (or about 25 minutes if baking directly from the refrigerator).
Raspberry Sauce:
- While the soufflés are baking, purée the raspberries and sugar in the bowl of a food processor, blender, or with an immersion blender, until smooth. Press the mixture through a fine mesh strainer to remove the seeds.
- Garnish the chocolate soufflés with powdered sugar and serve immediately with raspberry sauce.
Notes
This recipe was originally published in 2013 and has been updated with new photos and recipe tips. Photos by Constance Higley.
So delicious and easy to make!
You make this recopies so easy, very tasty and delicious. Guiding us step by step. Thank you for this helpful post
This recipe was so easy!! It tasted delicious. This was my first attempt at souffles and this was a great starter recipe. Can’t wait to try it again.
Hooray! So glad you gave this recipe a try!
Hi Tessa – please properly credit the recipe for the chocolate soufflé to Real Simple!
https://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/chocolate-souffl
Hi Ted! Thanks so much for bringing this to our attention! It looks like this was one of our recipes that lost its credit attributions when we moved all 1,000+ recipes to a new recipe formatting plugin. We have added the credit to the recipe card.
Very decadent, super easy to make, thanks do much!
I made this tonight! They turned out great! My only comment would be that it took almost 8 min to whip the egg white mixture with my hand mixer (too little liquid for my stand mixer), so I wish I had known that going into it just so I could be prepared! These were much easier than I anticipated, and I will definitely make them again -many times!