February | 2018 | Agustina's Kitchen

fullsizeoutput_2599

These delicious little souffles deflated faster than the camera could go “click!” by the time they were ready for their close up. It was rather sad, but such is life. Gotta take hold of the reigns before they fly past: life stops for no one and we always have to keep pressing forward. So press forward I did, and here we are with a delicious and surprisingly easy dessert!

Saturday night Chris went to the SMC/Gonzaga game at our alma mater (and also where we got married!) so I made these for the kids and I to enjoy as a consolation. To be honest, we might have devoured these before dinner. Oops! On another note, I made a couple of these without raspberries, and I must say they are not nearly as good without the raspberries! The great thing about souffle is that you can prepare the batter and pour into the ramekins the day before, because it will keep in the fridge overnight. This saves a lot of time, and breaks up the work quite nicely.

Don’t forget: if you’re going to put a cute, little powdered sugar heart or other design on top make sure your stencil and powdered sugar are ready to go as soon as they come out of the oven – the longer it takes for you to serve these babies the more likely they’ll deflate before they make it to the table! A lesson learned for next time. 😉

fullsizeoutput_2597

INGREDIENTS:

*recipe from William Sonoma’s book Home Baked Comfort

7 tbsp granulated sugar, plus more for dusting the ramekins
6 oz package of raspberries
3 tbsp unsalted butter
6 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped. I highly suggest using a high quality chocolate! It makes all the difference for this decadent, chocolate based dessert.
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
5 large eggs, separated plus 2 egg whites
pinch of salt – about a 1/4 tsp
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
confectioners’ sugar for dustin

INSTRUCTIONS:

Place rack in lower third of the oven and preheat to 375F.
The recipe calls for six 1-cup ramekins, but I found the recipe made 8. Hence, butter 8 ramekins and lightly dust each with granulated sugar.
In a small bowl toss the raspberries with a tablespoon of the sugar and divide among the ramekins.
In a small saucepan, melt the butter and chocolate over low heat, stirring as you go. Don’t let the chocolate burn. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla.
In your mixer, with the whip attachment, beat the egg yolks and 3 tablespoons of the sugar on medium speed until it’s thickened. Fold the chocolate mixture in.
In a large bowl with a hand mixer, beat the egg whites, salt, and cream of tartar on medium-high speed. When the egg whites are getting fluffy, add the remaining 3 tablespoons of granulated sugar and beat until you have thick, stiff egg white peaks.
Fold the beaten egg whites into the chocolate mixture. Divide the mixture evenly among the ramekins.
Place on a rimmed baking sheet and bake until they are set and puffed, about 18, but not more than 20 minutes.
Dust with powdered sugar, and enjoy before they fall!

fullsizeoutput_2595 fullsizeoutput_259a fullsizeoutput_2596

cheers! and Happy Valentine’s Day ♥

SaveSave

picture_new

I truly can’t believe it’s already February?! We’re 1/12 of the way through the year, and I must say it’s been a really fun, adventurous, and exciting year so far. To kick off the new year we celebrated with friends in Patagonia. Specifically, we stayed with family friends who have a fly fishing lodge in Esquel, Argentina. It was one of the most beautiful places I’d been in years.

While we were there I kept thinking I was in the movie The Sound of Music, and found myself waiting for everyone to break out into song and dance: “a doe! a deer! a female deer, rain, a drop of golden sun…” while that never happened, I couldn’t stop playing the movie over and over in my head. Maria, played by Julie Andrews, says in the movie: “the skies were so blue today, and everything was so green, I just had to be a part of it.” This is exactly what it felt like to be there. Kids climbing trees, picking strawberries and raspberries and cherries right off the trees, running outside all day, riding bikes, swimming, I could go on…

We let the kids go kayaking in the river one afternoon, and I couldn’t help but remember that scene in the movie where the children and Maria are in their canoes heading back home and they all fall in the water while their Father watches – although my kids never fell in I think these pictures give a glimpse of what I’m talking about! If you couldn’t already tell The Sound of Music is one of my all time favorite films. 😉

After we left our friends’ place, we continued to Villa La Angostura which is closer to Bariloche, also in Patagonia. We stayed in a gorgeous home turned hotel that I didn’t want to leave, and that I now can’t wait to go back to one day! It was a truly incredible trip that I’m grateful we got to do as a family.

During this trip we didn’t have internet connection of any kind whatsoever for 3 or 4 days straight. I can’t explain how incredibly freeing it was to be forced to disconnect in that way. We couldn’t check e-mail, there was no “let me Google that!” during dinner conversations…anything. Not even texting. As a result, since coming home, I spend less time online, less time thinking about e-mail, social media, surfing the web to browse this and that. I find that it allows me to play more, have more fun, and be more present, for lack of a better word. … things to think about, I suppose.