Because I received a case of free pomegranate juice, I decided to spend some time cruising food blogs looking to see what sort of pom recipes I could find. A horrible job, I admit, but, someone has to do it. Well, imagine my surprise when I find this site that has an extremely similar recipe to my chocolate/pomegranate sauce recipe. But, this recipe was not used for sauce, it was used to make a truffle! Here I thought I was so clever and it had already been done before. But, this woman made mini white chocolate souffles with a pomegranate truffle tucked inside!!!  Wow. This is something I had to try. So I did.

I used my “truffle” recipe because I used vanilla and this new recipe used almond. I love almond, but, for some reason I was hesitant to change things, so I stayed with my old recipe, you know the one I made last week.  I had a few problems making the souffle part, I had to add another 1/4 cup of milk. It was too much like a roux and I knew I would never be able to incorporate the egg whites, it was too thick and heavy. So I had to play around a bit, which scares me.

Now with cooking, there is a ton of leeway, but, with baking, not so much. So adding and subtracting things can lead to disaster. Don’t ask me how I know this. But, fortunately, the addition of extra milk didn’t cause any damage.

The problem I had with this recipe was that it was a souffle. Duh?! Well, if you have ever made a souffle you know they deflate soon after coming out of the oven. And when these deflated they weren’t very pretty. I am a firm believer in taste over presentation, but, still, you want your dessert to be moderately appealing.

The Recipe:

Mini White Chocolate Souffles with Pomegranate Chocolate Sauce adapted from this website: Lifetime Moms

(there looks to be two separate authors here so please check it out, I want to give credit where credit is due)

Chocolate/pomegranate truffles

1/4 cup POM juice

4 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

I put all the ingredients in a measuring cup and then microwaved for 1 minute. Stir the sauce until smooth and silky. Refrigerate until solid and you can scoop out balls for the truffles. It makes six truffles with a small scoop.

Mini White Chocolate Souffle

3 eggs, separated

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour, sifted

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 cup whole milk or cream or use half of each

6 ounces white chocolate , finely chopped

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

2 tablespoons sugar

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Butter and sugar 6 small ramekins. Set aside.

Combine the flour and salt in a small saucepan. Whisk in enough milk to make a thick paste. Then whisk in the remaining milk.

Cook on medium heat, whisking constantly, for 3 minutes or until it's a thick cream sauce.

Whisk 2 tablespoons of the cream sauce into a bowl with the 3 egg yolks. Once the egg yolks are gently warmed, scrape them into the saucepan, and whisk constantly for 2 minutes or until it's a thick pastry cream.

Scrape the cream into a bowl, and add the white chocolate. Whisk until it's completely blended. Stir in the vanilla extract and set aside.

In another bowl, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar on high until it has soft peaks. Gradually beat in the sugar until you have medium-stiff peaks. Use a rubber spatula to fold in part of the egg whites into the white chocolate cream mixture. Then gently fold the rest in.

Put one chocolate ball in the bottom of each ramekin. Divide the batter evenly among the ramekins.

Bake for about 15 minutes. The tops should be golden brown.

Final Thoughts:

I don’t know what to think. Perhaps if we had eaten the souffles while still puffy, it would have been more appealing. And of course, I was stupidly disappointed in not having a plain old truffle in the center, but, I can’t blame a recipe because I am stupid.

I refrigerated the souffles before eating them. And I don’t know if they should have been served straight from the oven or not.  Now don’t get me wrong, these were mighty tasty. Paul thought they tasted like cheesecake, which is not a bad thing at all. But, I wanted more of a white chocolate flavor.

I, actually, would make this again, but, I would add more white chocolate to the batter. Instead of six ounces I would use a full eight and see if that would bring out more flavor. Plus, I think I would try to eat them before they deflated.

I have to say that there was one still in the refrigerator after a few days and I had it and it was really good. I think it tastes even better. Do give this a try becauser really you can’t go wrong with melted chocolate/pomegranate truffles and deflated white chocolate souffle! Enjoy!