Make Ahead Chocolate Souffles for a Night of Love

We used to go out on Valentine's Day. Big expensive dinners with menus studded with exotic aphrodisiac ingredients that we booked months ahead of time. One year at a fancy French restaurant in New York, the chef decided to do a his and hers menu, with no substitution allowed. I spent the evening coveting Steve's dinner of truffled venison and chocolate cake while I was served feminine portions of sole and passion fruit mousse. My anger grew all evening long and I finally threw a fit over dessert, demanding the "manly" chocolate. I would have marched into the kitchen to personally yell at the sexist chef if that's what it took to get me my chocolate fix.

Our Valentine's feasts now take place at home. No reservation stress, no menu frustration, and most importantly, no misguided chocolate denials. We typically start with a cheese souffle, share a prime aged steak, and finish up with chocolate souffles.

I love this particular souffle recipe because it can be made ahead of time. There's nothing romantic about leaving the table to whip up egg whites. If you make the batter right before cooking it, you'll get a half an inch more height right when the souffle comes out of the oven, but even if you make this a few hours ahead, you'll still get a beautiful, light as air chocolate dessert to finish your romantic meal.

Make Ahead Chocolate Soufflés (Adapted From Gourmet Dec 1998)
Makes 8 individual souffle ramekins
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Ingredients:
¼ cup sugar plus additional for coating ramekins
8 ounces fine quality semi-sweet chocolate
4 Tablespoons of unsalted butter

4 large egg yolks
7 large egg whites

1. If you're planning on cooking the souffles immediately, preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Butter 6 1-cup ramekins (4x2 inches) and coat with sugar, knocking out excess sugar.
3. Break the chocolate into coarse chunks. In a small saucepan melt butter over low heat. Add chocolate, stirring until smooth. Transfer mixture to a large bowl, let cool for 2 minutes, and stir in yolks.
4. In another large bowl with an electric mixer beat whites with a pinch of salt until they just hold stiff peaks. Gradually add ¼ cup of sugar, beating until just combined. Stir one fourth whites into chocolate mixture to lighten and fold in remaining whites gently but thoroughly.
5. Divide soufflé mixture among ramekins and smooth tops with a knife. Run tip of knife around edges of soufflés to aid rising. Soufflés may be made up to this point 1 day ahead and kept chilled, loosely wrapped in plastic wrap.
6. Bake soufflés on a baking sheet in lower third of oven until puffed and surfaces are cracked, about 20 minutes.
7. Top soufflés with ice cream or crème vanille and serve immediately. Serves 6.

Dream Date

Steve and I are serious about our dates. For a long time after moving out to New Jersey and having our second child, I would get a babysitter every other weekend, even that felt profligate. Then Steve questioned why we were limiting ourselves to every other Saturday night. He questioned what was keeping us from declaring every Saturday night a kid-free night? A hot-date night? A night of keeping us connected, alive and in love. He argued that it was not extravagant, it was essential, necessary to the health of our union. I was more than happy to oblige. Since then, we have had a babysitter most Saturday nights and we both feel a little claustrophobic when we can't find a Saturday night sitter.

We're pretty social here in the burbs, and we use many of these Saturday nights to go to dinner with other couples or go to parties. We like to make sure that at least once a month, these Saturday nights are a true date night: just the two of us, dressed up a little, me in nice jeans and a sexy shirt, a little lipstick, eyeshadow and perfume, him in clean jeans and a clean shirt. It's such a great feeling to bid the kids and the babysitter goodnight and step out into the night together, knowing that we will not be interrupted for the next few hours and that we will be able to talk, share our thoughts, worries and maybe even a few laughs.

Our ideal date is dinner and a movie. We've always been movie addicts. In our pre-children days, we would see a movie every Sunday night; just to keep the work blues away a little longer. I loved our 8-block walk home along a deserted Broadway, around 10:30 at night, talking excitedly the whole way about what we'd liked and disliked about the movie we'd just seen. Then we would walk into our cozy one bedroom, brush our teeth, and snuggle up in bed ready to face the workweek.

Our date nights no longer involve leisurely walks along New York city streets, but they do still involve dinner and a movie. I miss the days when we would see everything that was released. Nowadays we often miss movies we really want to see because our schedules get too hectic. Seeing the movie on DVD with Steve periodically snoring on the couch next to me is just not the same. The worst feeling is when we waste one of the precious date nights on a bad movie. We recently saw No Country for Old Men and left the theater wishing the villain had shot us with his pneumatic device. But a few months ago, we had a great dinner and then laughed our way through Knocked Up. It was a perfect date night.

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