sunday dessert : cookies and cream souffles

I pretty much love cookies and cream anything. These cookies are my absolute favorite so last Sunday I transformed them into super easy, light, and delicious souffles. They were the perfect extra special dessert for a Sunday night spent watching the Oscars.

You can use any "sandwich" cookies in this recipe. My favorite are the Trader Joe's JoJos (their version of Oreos). I think they are so much better than Oreos.  If you haven't tried them, buy some! They're so good. And addicting. 

cookies and cream souffles (makes four)
-5 tablespoons flour
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-1/2 teaspoon baking powder
-2 tablespoons brown sugar
-2 eggs, separated
-3 tablespoons milk
-about 1 teaspoon butter and a little white sugar (for coating the ramekins)
-3 or 4 sandwich cookies, crushed (Oreos or my favorite, Trader Joe's JoJo's)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Prepare two ramekins by coating with a tiny bit of butter {about 1/4 teaspoon per dish} and dusting with a tiny bit of white sugar.

2. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder, and brown sugar.  

3. Mix the milk into the dry ingredients and separate the eggs.  Add the yolks to the dry ingredients/milk and put the egg whites in a different bowl.

4. Use an electric mixer to beat the egg whites until soft peaks form.  This should take about 45 seconds to a minute.

5. Gently fold the egg whites into the rest of the ingredients.  Be sure to mix until all is combined but don't over mix. You don't want to lose the volume from the egg whites. Finally, gently fold in about half of the crushed cookies.

6. Pour the batter into the four dishes and top each one with a little of the remaining crushed cookies.

7. Bake for about 20 or 23 minutes...just until the top is golden and puffed up.

Enjoy!  These are SO good.  I know I will be making them again and again.

sunday dessert - vanilla pear souffles

Remember my recent souffle obsession?  Well, it happened again - this time with pear souffles.

I don't know what to say about these except....go make them right now.

They are light and delicious and kind of perfect.  

The funny thing about taking souffle photos is that they begin to fall as soon as they are removed from the oven.  The first few photos I took, the souffles were nice and poofy but as the photo session went on....they looked flat.   Normal people would just enjoy their dessert, I had to photograph it first.  Blogger problems, right?

Anyways...enjoy!  These are so good.  

vanilla pear souffles {makes 4}
-2 eggs - separated
-1/4 cup flour
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-1/2 teaspoon baking powder
-2 tablespoons powdered sugar
-1 pear - grated 
-1 teaspoon vanilla extract
-2 tablespoons unsweetened vanilla almond milk
-two teaspoons of butter or buttery spread {I used earth balance} and two teaspoons of white granulated sugar

1. In a small bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking powder, and powdered sugar.  Whisk in the two egg yolks, the almond milk, and the vanilla extract.  Finally, grate the pear {peel too} and add to the bowl.  Set aside.
2. In a separate bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the egg whites until peaks form - this will take about a minute.
3. Gently fold the egg whites into the rest of the ingredients.

4. Take a little of the butter or buttery spread and lightly coat the inside of four ramekins.  After buttering, dust the ramekins with a little granulated sugar {about 1/2 teaspoon per dish}.
5. Spoon equal amounts of the batter into each ramekin and bake in a 375 degree oven for about 25 minutes.  The souffles will poof up and brown a little on top.

Serve immediately - these will fall after a short while but they will still taste amazing.

You can experiment with different fruit.  For my next souffle I am going to try berries.

sunday dessert - chocolate chip cookie souffles

Just about every Sunday I make some sort of dessert.  I am going to try to share my Sunday desserts with you guys whenever they happen.  Some weeks I just don't make a dessert and some weeks I repeat recipes and some weeks I don't feel like taking pictures :).   Hopefully I will get around to at least two Sunday dessert posts every month.

You might not know this about me but I love sweets.  And by love I mean obsessed with them and have no self control.  One way I have found to control my sweet tooth is to have limited portions at my disposal.   I would love to make a big ol' chocolate cake but there are only two of us and my husband isn't a big fan of cake {I know!} so if I ended up making a cake, I would be eating it for days.

Through my plan to create desserts with limited portions, I have discovered a love of souffles.  They are easy, you can make just one or two at a time, and they seem a lot more indulgent than they actually are.

This chocolate chip cookie souffle I created is SO good.  I have made these several times this past month and yesterday, I finally perfected the recipe.  These souffles are perfect when you are craving a cookie but you don't want several dozen sitting in your kitchen, tempting you all week long....

chocolate chip cookie souffles {serves two}
-2 1/2 tablespoons flour {I use whole wheat, but all purpose works too}
-1/4 teaspoon salt
-1/4 teaspoon baking powder
-1 tablespoon brown sugar
-1 egg, separated
-1 1/2 tablespoon milk
-a tiny bit of butter or butter spread {I like to use earth balance} and white sugar to coat the ramekins
-about 1 tablespoon chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Prepare two ramekins by coating with a tiny bit of butter or butter spread {about 1/4 teaspoon per dish} and dusting with a tiny bit of white sugar.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder, and brown sugar.  
3. Mix the milk into the dry ingredients and separate the egg.  Add the yolk to the dry ingredients/milk and put the white in a different bowl.
4. Use an electric mixer to beat the egg white until soft peaks form.  This should take about 45 seconds to a minute.
5. Gently fold the egg whites into the rest of the ingredients.  Be sure to mix until all is combined but don't overmix to the point that the volume from the egg whites is lost.
6. Pour the batter into the two dishes and top each one with a few chocolate chips.
7. Bake for about 20 or 23 minutes...just until the top is golden and puffed up.

These souffles are amazing with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream or a dollop of whipped cream....enjoy!